Authorities rushed food, drinking water and medicine to India's flood-hit areas on Friday to ward off epidemics, as thousands of people returned to their damaged homes and the death toll in South Asia reached at least 575 people.Torrential rains have stranded some 19 million in the past two weeks across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal, flooding rivers and submerging villages and farmland, officials said. Since the monsoon started in June, more than 1,550 people have died in India alone, the Indian Home Ministry said.
A reprieve in the monsoon rains created ponds of stagnant water that could breed diseases in thousands of flood-hit villages in India's Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states.
Doctors have treated more than 1,500 people for diarrhea caused by contaminated drinking water in 22 flood-hit districts in the past 10 days, said L.B. Prasad, director-general of government health services in Uttar Pradesh state.
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