Flood waters that have killed more than 450 people in Pakistan and India have begun to recede.
In a bid to prevent further death and destruction, authorities in Pakistan have destroyed a strategic dam in the flood-affected Punjab region to protect urban areas and ease pressure on defensive systems.
That move alone is understood to have allowed some 700,000 people to be evacuated from villages.
In India, the army has been struggling to evacuate people from homes and mosques where they have sought shelter.
Now the top priority is to distribute food, clean drinking water, medicines and stop the spread of water-borne diseases.
Authorities say more than a million people have been cut-off from basic services.
