Flood defences reach new heights

Marginalised flood survivors in Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and Assam are building raised floors that can help their homes withstand future deluge, in an ActionAid initiative backed by European Commission Humanitarian Aid.

“Flood water usually comes up to a maximum of two feet. The new cemented platforms are 2.5 feet high so will protect the house from being inundated,” says Sudipta Kumar, who leads ActionAid’s work in UP.

“While civil engineers have been roped in to build the foundation, villagers can still use local materials like bricks, grass and cow dung mixture for walls and roofs. Our venture will benefit 600 families in the worst affected villages of UP, Bihar and Assam.”

Each raised platform costs approximately Rs 15,000. In Assam, ActionAid is helping villagers build complete bamboo houses propped on six cement stilts six feet high, and comprising traditional bamboo walls and roofs made up of iron sheets.

Much needed wages

In Bela Bichla hamlet in Piprakothi block, East Champaran district of Bihar, women and men of the Musahar community, one of the most marginalised Dalit groups, are earning a much needed daily wage to carry out flood protection work on their homes.

Ramkishore Majhi of Bela Bicha says, "Without this help it would have been difficult to survive."

But such is the enormity of the distress, he says, that a number of people from his hamlet have still had to migrate to Delhi, Punjab and other distant places to find work.

Amar, secretary of SSEVK, ActionAid’s local partner adds: "So great is the distress of people that relief has to be stepped up substantially in the winter months and maintained at a high level till the rabi (winter) crop is harvested in April providing work for local people.”

Keeping disease at bay 

Apart from repair and reconstruction of homes, rehabilitation work includes installing hand pumps and anti-mosquito spraying to combat malaria, dengue and Japanese Eencephalitis, a deadly viral infection spread by mosquitoes.

In Gorakhpur district of UP, next to Maharajganj district where ActionAid works, Japanese Encephalitis had claimed over 350 lives post floods. Thanks to the prompt health drives by ActionAid and community groups, Maharajganj district was spared from the disease.

Health programmes are being carried out alongside livelihood support such as cash for work and helping people set up small businesses such as cycle repair and grocery shops.