EHA

September 1, 2008

In response to the severe floods situation in Bihar caused due to the breach of river Kosi, Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA) along with its partners, is spearheading relief operations for the flood affected men, women and children in Bihar. EHA is coordinating its relief activities through relief teams based in Patna, Saharsa and Madhipura.

EHA Response:

1. Food Relief in Camps:
Unlike 2007 flood interventions in Bihar, the situation is extremely different and getting worse as flood levels rise everyday and people flee from their villages.

The DM has given two camps to EHA for food distribution. EHA relief team is providing food and drinking water to 1200 people in these two camps for the next 15 days. TP College is where about 7-800 people are sheltered with only once a day meal. Another unorganized relief camp is in Sabela that has about 3-400 people without any food relief from the government. .The team is distributing Khichuri made of rice, dal, salt, oil etc.

2. Dry food packets in railway station:
Thousands of women and children are sheltering in and around the railway station trying to flee from Madhipura by train. These people are without food for days together. They are tired as some families walked many distances ranging from 20 – 40 kms braving flood waters. EHA plans to provide dry food packages containing Churra/flattened rice, sugar and biscuits packets to them.

Status of Madhipura Hospital
90% of the staff houses are under water for about a week now. Electronic and electric equipment including medical equipments, drugs and other supplies have been shifted to higher levels as much as possible. The Administrative office is under water. Most of the staff have been evacuated to Saharsa. A core team has stayed back and is helping in the relief work.

Situation Report:

Dr Jachin reports from Patna – September 1

1. Over-Burdening Of Camp-Sites
One of our concerns is the overcrowding of camp-sites. Already lakhs of people are taking refuge in their nearest campsites. Relief agencies are also flooding their personnel there. But where is the place for everyone? If you take Saharsa, 50 lakh people have crowded into it. But it is a small town. Such overcrowding may pose severe problems in terms of epidemics, sanitation, supplies etc. But the campsites in Patna are good. There are 3 camps at Patna and 2 at Rajendar nagar. It is good because it is spacious and supplies are easily reachable and people have an opportunity to go out and earn a livelihood instead of being jailed in these camps. Already govt has arranged for special trains between Patna and Delhi for the flood victims.

2. Exorbitant Costs
Not everyone looks at the humanitarian side in times of catastrophe, definitely not the truck fellows and others who see this as an opportunity to loot. Yesterday the Father from Kurji Mission, Patna was trying to send supplies by trucks to Madhipura and was demanded triple the cost by the truck fellows. So, supplies for camps can cost quite a bit for transportation.

3. Danger To People And Relief Workers
The campsites located in raised areas like Saharsa, Purnea etc are under constant flood threats. I talked to Dr. Alex Philip at Purnea last night and he said that they were getting ready for relief work when suddenly yesterday, warning notice was issued that Purnea may be flooded. So they had to abandon operations and shift staff to safety. Last evening there was a threat that water may enter Saharsa also. In case this happens, where and how will we shift 50 lakh refugees and hundreds of relief workers? It will be a worse than the present catastrophe. We feel we should think pro-actively on these lines.

The meeting with the CM went on well. He explained the present situation in detail and said that the immediate watchword is RESCUE and RELIEF. The later need would be for REHABILITATION and RECONSTRUCTION. He talked about semi-permanent camps with toilets, drainage pipes, gas and water supply etc. He wanted the planning to be at macro-level, but the actual relief work to be at micro-level. And he invited all NGOs to come forward and take up these camps and run them with full autonomy with the govt being ready to give as much assistance as possible. He wants this done in a co-ordinated fashion and hence NODAL OFFICERS are placed in each block whom we can contact any time. The whole coordination process will be under Mr. Afzal Amanullah, Home secretary. All NGOs were given a chance to share with the CM as to how they can help.

I have moved to Saharsa district head quarters. This seems to be a good decision since the Madhipura town, including our hospital, from where we hoped to do our relief operations is being marooned because of rising flood waters. The railway station is flooded, the tracks are under water and the main roads have 11/2 to 21/2 feet of water over it. Traversing more than one kilometre of water by the Sumo was a feat by itself.

Madhipura hospital has a premature baby in the incubator. His mother refuses to go away with the baby - she has nowhere to go. The hospital staff quarters have up to two feet of water on the floor. Most of the staff have left the town.

There would be an interagency meeting tomorrow morning at 8 am at the BCI church. EFICOR, EHA and DC would discuss the possibility of a unified response.

Peniel Malakar Reports from Madhipura - August 29

Brief assessment of the situation:
Life has changed permanently for more than 2.5 million people living along the Kosi river. Fifteen districts in Bihar are affected, the worst affected being Supaul, followed by Araria and Madhipura. All three have been facing the brunt of Kosi's fury. It is a breach that has changed the course of the Kosi river after nearly 200 hundred years. As per the history, such a height of flood water has taken place first time during the last 50 years.

The unofficial death toll surpassed hundreds in this district itself. At least 30-40000 people are badly trapped in Madhipura and adjoining districts of Supol, Arariya and Purnia and the rather low scale rescue efforts are not sufficient to bring those people in the safe land in a short while. Due to want of fuel, vehicles carrying boats are lined up and motor boats are not running. A local daily reported that atleast 1 died in Madhipura due hunger and 5 drowned, while another 4 drowned in the neighboring Supaul and Purnia districts on 28th Aug 2008.

In Mirgunj, about 8 kms from Madhipura, at least 20 people drowned including a havildar as a rescue boat capsized due to uncontrolled crowd and over loading. Army could rescue more than 30 people in this incident. The tragedy occurred as the boat was overcrowded with people eager to reach a safe place, he said. Additional rescue teams of the army and National Disaster Response Force have been pressed into service to locate the bodies and possible survivors.

We arrived at Madhipura Christian Hospital at about 3 pm on 28th August. After having a quick late lunch we rushed towards the villages around Madhipura town only to have sights of million people's plight. We increasingly felt insecure and threatened to see panic-stricken villagers thronging towards destination that they themselves do not know. Some are leaving the relief camps as the water inundates parts of the temporary shelter. One elderly women said, “...we along with our children have not eaten for days together...so what is the use of living in relief camp?”

Most of the government lifeline buildings including DM's residence, circuit house, government and private hospitals and other important buildings are under water. There were four snake bite cases thus far in Madhipura Hospital, while no such significant reports of other diseases yet.

The scenery reminds us of the human race's march to Noah's ark during the great deluge. There has been a huge number of losses of livestock too. To my query, one person quickly pointed us towards the inundated bushy area where a pair of dead bodies (a woman grabbing her child) flowed from a nearby riverside village Kumarkhand, which is fully under water and there is no one to rescue people left behind.

The villages most affected in and around Madhipura are Shankarpur, Ramhoria, Bishenpur, Chakla, Islampur, Sahughar, Beloghat, Kumarkhanj, Madhat, Tribenigunj, Tikulia, Tahara, Kasia, Kumarkhand, Garibtola, Jivachpur, Garbuja, Shital patti & Dumtolla.