The rising waters forced millions out of their homes

The river responsible for floods that
displaced millions of people in India and Nepal five months ago has
been diverted back to its original course.

The Kosi river burst its man-made embankment in Nepal close to
the Indian border in the middle of August and went massively
off-course.

Nearly 400 people died in the ensuing floods in India's eastern Bihar state and millions were affected.

Tens of thousands of people in Nepal were left homeless in the floods.

Restoring the Kosi to its old route has involved a team of more than 500 construction staff.

They have worked frantically to build coffer dams out of
sandbags, concrete and galvanised wire and thereby restore the man-made
embankment that was breached.

They finally managed to re-divert the river late on Monday.

A disaster prevention official in south-east Nepal says that all
the river water is now flowing along its original channel, far to the
west of the new course it had taken since August.

Original channel

For months after the breach, work was impossible; it is only now
that water levels have receded enough to enable it to be completed by
the Indian company given the job by the government in Delhi.

See how the river changed course

For millions of displaced people, however, the suffering will not be over for a long while.

The rerouted Kosi swept across a vast part of the Gangetic
plain, destroying millions of homes and killing hundreds of people,
mainly in Bihar.

Two months ago the BBC visited the affected part of Nepal,
where formerly fertile farmland had become covered in a thick layer of
silt and sand and made completely uncultivable.

Eyewitness in Bihar say many government-run camps have closed but that the displaced people have nowhere to go.

In Nepal some people have been able to go home but camps remain
open while people wait for dwellings promised by the government to be
built.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7852683.stm