The devastating floods that hit Assam in the month of July claimed several lives and badly affected the lives of lakhs of people across the state. There was great damage caused to community infrastructure, property, livestock, standing crops and agricultural fields. Responding to the emergency, ActionAid Association and its allies were there on the ground immediately, providing humanitarian relief to the communities affected. In the aftermath of the floods, we distributed hygiene kits to 1,296 families across 23 villages of Barpeta and Kamrup districts. We also installed Iron Removal Filtration (IRF) units in eight villages of these districts.

Subsequently, with support from Asian Paints and together with Society for Social Transformation and Environmental Protection (sSTEP) and Gramya Vikash Manch (GVM), we reached out to 1,770 families across 13 villages of Baksa and Morigaon districts with hygiene kits and bleaching powder. The hygiene kits distributed comprised essential household items, such as buckets, mugs, sanitary pads and other toiletries. In addition, with support from Asian Paints, our teams visited the 13 villages to carry out decontamination of water sources, including handpumps, ponds and wells. During these visits, community members were also oriented on decontamination processes through hands-on demonstrations, including the appropriate amounts of bleaching powder to be used for decontamination. Over the months of August and September, 16 IRF units were installed with support from Asian Paints  – six units in Baksa district and 10 units in Morigaon district. The IRF units will hugely benefit the local communities by providing them access to clean and safe water. An IRF-installed hand pump would be able to cater to nearly 100 families.

Besides, with support from North East Collective, a student body at IIT Bombay, we provided kits consisting of food as well as non-food items to 250 families from Mayong block of Morigaon district.

You would be pleased to learn that in all our response efforts and the related processes, we have been ensuring active participation of local communities, especially women, thereby strengthening women’s capacities to build back better.