 |
|
Click Here for Assam Floods 2003 Information.
Date: August 15, 2000 
"In most villages we saw only the roof tops and half-submerged houses with a cowering cat or dog occasionally clinging to the roof for dear life," Dhiren Chandra Modi describes his observations while paddling in a country boat to the hamlet of Dukribari in the state of Assam in Northeast India. Floods and landslides in Northeast India have left about 5 million people homeless in the states of Assam, Bihar and West Bengal. They are lacking shelter, food and clean water. Subsequently the flood victims are facing various diseases.
To assist the homeless Action for Churches Together (ACT) launched an appeal for assistance to flood victims in India for about $700,000 to cover support such as plastic sheeting, food aid, tube wells to provide safe water, clothing, blankets and medical care. The appeal aims to help an estimated 200,000 persons, who are the poorest of the affected people. It will be implemented by the ACT members LWF India and CASA (Church's Auxiliary for Social Action), the umbrella for 24 protestant and orthodox churches in India.
"The residents of the flooded villages all left to take shelter on the nearest road or embankment," Modi, who is a trained health worker, says. The group came also across a few permanent brick and cement houses with people sheltering on the rooftops and waiting for help. In Assam alone more than 3400 villages are flooded.
The ACT team heard that all 23 houses in the village of Dukribari had been washed away and that it was not clear what happened to the people living there and so the team decided to search for them. When the group reached the village they couldn't see a sign of life. "Only floating straws and bamboo staves from the structure of the houses swaying against the current," Modi says. But where were the villagers? "We made a guess. Since there were no bodies or people in sight we assumed they had escaped to the nearest ground," Modi reports.
So there was more paddling against the current to be done before the team got to the nearest embankment. Still, there were no signs of life. So the group decided to walk along the embankment. After walking for two kilometers they found the people they were looking for.
"More than 250 people, everyone from Dukribari village and many from the neighboring villages had taken shelter on the highest and the least vulnerable spot on the embankment," Modi says. Most had no shelter. Only a lucky few had plastic sheets. The others had to use whatever they could find to protect themselves from the rains. They had been there for four days without much food and very little water.
The people were in need of shelter, food and water. On their first visit the ACT team could only bring medicine. Within four hours they handed out medicine to 175 patients. 90% of them were treated for diarrhea, cough, cold and upper respiratory tract infections. When the team left it promised to return with more supplies such as food, water, plastic sheets or clothing.
Source: Action by Churches Together, http://www.act-intl.org.