India’s western region braced for more monsoon rains yesterday as thousands of people were evacuated from flooded towns and villages, officials said.

Officials in the worst-affected western state of Gujarat said they were stocking up food, water and medicines in relief camps housed in schools and government buildings where some 70,000 people had taken refuge.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in South Asia, most of them in Bangladesh and eastern India, in several weeks of torrential monsoon rains. The rains have moved westwards bringing relief to farmers hit by drought but disaster to others caught in the deluge.

Dozens of villages around India’s financial capital Bombay were inundated in the latest flooding and rail, road traffic disrupted. Several rivers in the region flowed above danger levels.

Weather officials offered little respite, forecasting moderate to heavy rainfall in the area over the next 48 hours.

“We are fully prepared to handle any increased flooding. Helicopters and boats have been arranged to evacuate people at short notices”, said I.K Jadeja, Gujarat’s Health and Family Welfare Minister.

Flood waters were however receding in Gujarat’s diamond and textile city of Surat after large parts were submerged. “The worst seems to be over. Water is receding and we are hoping to get back to work in a day or two”, said Nanubahi Viradia, a city trader.

Bangladesh, which took the brunt of the first round of flooding, struggled to control diseases brought on by people drinking flood water and eating stale food.

More than 670 people have died in weeks of flooding in Bangladesh and more than 6,000 people are estimated to have contracted water-borne diseases like diarrhoea.

Authorities stepped up supplies of food, clean water and medicine to flood shelters across Bangladesh to avert more deaths. But conditions remained grim in far-flung villages where thousands of families were still marooned.

The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has said floods had cost the country more than $7 billion, adding the UN would appeal to donors next week to support a major reconstruction plan.

“We are virtually starving, they gave some food and water that is sufficient for one person only. What will the rest of my family eat or drink”, said Masuma Khatun, mother of five, at a Dhaka relief camp.