Millions of people in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have spent weeks in makeshift tents and other temporary accommodation and are at increasing risk of life-threatening disease. Flood water in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar had dropped up to 6 feet after a break in the annual monsoon. But rains have again begun to fall, re-flooding homes and hampering relief efforts.

Plan is expanding its emergency relief work to help thousands of children in north India who are being forced to flee their homes for a second time as rain returns to flood-hit areas.

Plan has already set up health camps and distributed medicine and water purification tablets to over 5,000 households in Muzaffarpur. Plan will now provide help to 20,000 more families in neighbouring communities.

"The first time the flood water came in to my house it stayed for 8 days. The water came back yesterday; almost 100 houses are flooded again here. Today we are moving to another place. All of us having to move out are seeking refuge in the stadium or on people's front porches. Everybody is nervous and scared. The children are frightened of snakes and leeches brought by the flood," said Kanti, a mother of 3 children.

She is concerned her children will fall ill. Doctors warn that suspected malaria cases have increased 30-fold since the start of the floods. Children are also at risk of diarrhoea, skin disease and cholera.

Chandi, aged 10, is a Plan sponsored child. Her house has been flooded for the past 12 days. "I have seen snakes and scorpions and they frighten me. I am living in Rani Sati Maa temple and have difficulty sleeping because there is not enough space," she said.

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