FLOOD IN BIHAR

Flood is an annual phenomenon in Bihar . The rain in Bihar starts from mid-June and continues till end of September putting the whole of North Bihar into threat of devastating floods. Torrential rains in the upper catchments areas of rivers of Bihar and Nepal affects some 20 districts annually.

Flood in Bihar is no longer associated only with heavy rain. Even in low rain, some districts are flooded. Embankments built to save villages from swollen rivers have the opposite effect by silting of the river beds, preventing natural drainage of flood water, water logging and blocking of tributaries.

Responding to the Floods
During the floods in 2004 and 2005, ActionAid India and its partners directly worked in 125 villages/hamlets of East Champaran District covering 6,532 families and 101 hamlets in Darbhanga district covering 4,274 flood affected families from the most poor and marginalised communities.

Our flood response was with the cooperation of international organisations like ECHO (European Union) and the UNICEF. Also, we received support from the citizens and school students of Patna . Such support enabled our volunteer teams to respond effectively to the flood crisis.

There were four important components of our relief work:

Food and Nutrition Pack:
This contained food pack for 2-4 weeks and nutritional supplement to the severely malnourished children, women and men, pregnant mothers, and Kalazar and TB patients. About 5000 families received food support. Supplementary nutrition covered about 1500 pregnant mothers, severely malnourished children, men and women including 518 TB patients and 192 Kalazar patients. About 600 children have also received iron folifer, which have been sourced from the government.

Water and Sanitation:
Safe drinking water has been available to 10806 families. 4, 92,000 Halazone tablets for disinfecting potable water had been distributed among all the families in 2004, while 33, 00,000 tablets have so far been provided. 602 jerry cans had been provided on both family and community basis to store drinking water in 2004. In 2005, 50 Water storage tanks of 500 litres capacity have been provided at community/hamlet level in the village as well as at the relief shelters. Minor and major repairs had been undertaken in case of 818 handpumps while 5 new handpumps had been installed. 2060 handpumps had been disinfected by using bleaching powder.

In addition, about 6000 packets of bleaching powder of 750 gm-1000 gm each were distributed in 2004 to families belonging to other castes for disinfecting their private handpumps. In 2005, 1250 kg of bleaching powder have so far been distributed among the needy families. There had not been a single diarroheal death in 125 villages in East Champaran while in 68 hamlets of Darbhanga, diarrhoeal deaths had been restricted to single digit. Establishing of ORS Depot in the village and administering Vitamin A supplement to children made important contribution in prevention of diarrhoeal deaths. It benefited 8277 children. Special cleanliness drive has taken place in 135 villages. 413 water seal toilets were constructed.

This year, 337 plastic toilet pans have been distributed in flood affected villages. Medical support in form of check ups by qualified doctors, supply of Disposable Delivery Kits, etc. reached out to a population of 60,000 approximately. In 2005, 250 box each containing 1000 sachets of ORS were distributed among the needy.

Shelter Package:
In Darbhanga, 448 families received emergency shelter support in the form tarpaulin sheets to save themselves from rains. In 2005, 350 tarpaulin sheets have been distributed to the flood affected families. 835 families were supported through materials for repair and construction of their houses.

Livelihood Package:
A total number of 1268 families had received support for livelihood purpose. There had also been cash for work programme, which created approximately 3500 person days of employment.

Inter agency Coordination and Fund Raising:
An inter agency coordination committee has been formed comprising some local and international NGOs. Decision makers from ActionAid, UNICEF, CARE, and Hunger project, Bihar , Oxfam and some local NGOs have been regular participants. This coordination acted as pressure group on the government and got it to publicise the entitlements of the flood victims in the newspapers. The target group in E. Champaran was also able to receive food support twice during flood, which was not accessible to others in remaining districts. A network of 7 like minded organisations has also been supported by ActionAid in flood preparedness and relief programme.