Malli villagers with relief supplies. Photo: EHA
Tearfund is working through its partner relief agencies in India to help thousands of families (over 60,000 people) displaced by the worst monsoon floods to hit the region in 30 years. Across India, Bangladesh and Nepal over 25 million people have been displaced or marooned and the poorest states and communities are hit the hardest. However, there is hope where risk reduction and preparedness among communities may have prevented significantly larger loss of life.
Five and a half million people have been displaced in Bangladesh and over 750,000 people are affected in Nepal. In India, where Tearfund has funded relief programmes through its partner agencies, some 12 million people have either been displaced with their homes and farms destroyed or have been cut off – marooned by the rising waters.
Equipping vulnerable communities to reduce the risk of disaster is key - says Tearfund’s Head of Region for Asia, Sudarshan Sathianathan. “We support villagers as they go through the basics of disaster preparedness and response. They have been able to develop communication networks that provide warnings for evacuation to higher ground, and means to strengthen their homes and livelihoods. These are measures that can save lives.” says Sudarshan.
Tearfund partner agency, Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), is distributing relief kits to families in East Champaran district in the state of Bihar which has 10 million people affected by the floods with up to a million camping in the open. An estimated 70,000 homes are submerged or washed away.
Many families have moved to higher ground, living on highways and railway tracks. EHA are providing food and temporary shelters to communities and distributing water purification tablets, hygiene and sanitation kits and medical kits. They are also using a public health and sanitation campaign and mobile clinic to help prevent a severe outbreak of post-flood epidemics. Children are being given books and bags to lessen the impact on their schooling.
Prince David, Tearfund’s Regional Advisor in India, says that Dharbhanga district is cut off from its two main highways, including the one leading the Bihar state capital, Patna. Villages outside a four kilometre radius of Dharbhanga town are submerged under five feet of water. Tearfund partner agency Discipleship Centre (DC) has been distributing emergency food relief - pounded dry rice with sugar, and is providing temporary shelter materials to some 2,500 flood affected families across 25 villages.
Prince explains. “The town is at the confluence of river systems which are fed from upper parts of Nepal. Whereas the rainfall here hasn’t been the main cause of the flood, the river system brings water from outside and inundates land in the interior areas.” There has been a pause in the continual monsoon rainfall. If there is no more rain in the catchment area it will take four weeks for the water to recede, but more rain is expected. “Village Development committees in DC’s target villages formed themselves into clusters and held contingency planning meetings before the floods arrived. This prepared village volunteers and gave sufficient time for evacuation. It is difficult to estimate losses as all the villages are under water and communities are completely cut off, but we are confident and have hope because there was good planning.”
Dangerous currents due to the breach in the river embankment are restricting boat rescue. Because the situation in Dharbanga is so bad, the military are providing relief and rescue with food supplies being dropped by helicopter. Tearfund partner agencies are coordinating their work with the government authorities in the area.