Credit: The Wire

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the states of Assam and Bihar were the site of devastating floods that began in May as a result of heavy rainfall in Assam. The initial round of flooding in Assam affected at least 30,000 people and destroyed crops in 5 districts. Intermittent flooding continued through October, by which time flooding had directly claimed the lives of 123 people and impacted five million. Over one hundred fifty thousand in Assam were forced into relief camps.

In 2020, 7.54 lakh hectares of farmland was destroyed by flooding in Bihar. The districts of Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, East Champaran, Samastipur, and Saran were most impacted, and millions were displaced or otherwise affected. With villages inundated, crops ruined, and other community infrastructure damaged, individuals in both Assam and Bihar needed urgent support. Our teams in both these states were immediately on the ground, providing humanitarian support.

Response of ActionAid Association (AAA)

In Assam, we distributed relief material to the worst-hit households across the districts of Barpeta, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Golaghat and Morigaon. In total, we provided hygiene kits to 1,558 families and tarpaulin to 272 families to reconstruct collapsed portions of their homes. We also reached out to 960 cattle-owning families with additional food for their livestock. In Barpeta, we constructed several temporary toilets. In Barpeta and Morigaon, we created iron removal handpumps to ensure access to potable drinking water and decontaminated other sources of drinking water. We also ran drives in flood-hit villages and relief camps that were created in the aftermath. Awareness campaigns on COVID-19 precautions and on flood safety were organized for children across all intervention districts.

In Bihar, ActionAid Association distributed dry ration kits and masks to 400 families in Samastipur and 355 families in Muzaffarpur. We also provided dry ration support to 200 vulnerable families each in the districts of East Champaran and Sitamarhi. Additionally, teams with ActionAid Association provided educational sessions in these communities on cleanliness and hygiene to prevent the spread of water-borne infections and COVID-19. Volunteers with our organization are facilitating community members’ access to government welfare schemes in the flood’s aftermath.