Thursday, August 16, 2007

Updates from Gaighat - Chandan

Folks,
Sorry about the delay on yesterdays report.

All the relief materials were delivered to Mr.Sudhanshu, Circle officer,Gaighat yesterday afternoon;

In all,
Chlorine tabs 82000

Polythene sheets; 320 ft x 6 ft, 45Kg, four bundles,

Iodized salt 50 kg

One carton candles

One carton matchboxes

were handed over to his office. The receipt for the same has been given to me.

The condition at Gaighat is hellish, to say the least. As you cross Ahiyapur chowk and enter into Gaighat block..you immediately feel the contrast between these blocks.

Gaighat is still submerged, the whole block. In the 15 km stretch on the national highway... there was not a
single place where flood victims were not taking shelter.There is no possibility of any crop left, both standing ad

Taking shelter is the wrong word, as there is nothing to take shelter in. These victims are staying on the parallel highway being built along with there livestock. There would be close to 5000 livestock stranded in the open.

Whatever material these victims could scavenge to make a shelter, they are using it to shade the fodder, livestock and babies.

Relief is a farce. A laugh.And you dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

They are living marooned by sea of water under incessant rain.Yet they are positive.They are helping themselves and each other through this nightmarish experience.

What was also so different about these tough folks..was the absence of fear and hatred or aggression.
They hav taken this personally..and working out the problems one by one. They are obviously very disheartened wid the government.. which provides them a handful of chura- gur; once in three days or so.
No NGO's here. Red Cross, it seems, have not even ventured here, so are the others.Only UNICEF has made rounds in these areas are have really worked wid women and children marooned inside the villages.


Water problem is bad..hand pumps being the only source..apart from rainwater. The water from hand pump is
filtered but contaminated( common during floods)

Mr. Sudhanshu was kind enough to get his medical team which is attending cases of diarrhea in the interiors. They would be distributing the preventive medicines for outbreak of any water bound diseases.
we had some talk on what medicines they need and they would be sending us the list of medicines if and when needed.

We are doing good.But a lot more has to be done.

There is such a huge water body..sitting there..feeding itself with rain and water from Kamla .

Its going to take time.. and sustained honest effort to get this region back on its feet.

And a lot of determination.

Timely intervention/help is the key factor in disaster management.

Our government had failed miserably on this count. As a victim wryly added "ab hazaaro rupiya sarkaar daet to kaun kaaz ke; jab doo rupiya ke jaruat rahaie.tab ta saahib sab suttal rahin"( Whats the use if the Govt.gives us thousands of rupee now; when we needed help of two rupees..they were sleeping off)


cheers,
chandan

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