The Hindu : Front Page : Miles of northern Bihar still under water

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Saturday, Sep 06, 2008
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Miles of northern Bihar still under water

Manisha Jha and Sandeep Dikshit

Civic amenities still remain out of bounds for an estimated 30 lakh people

. — Photos: Ranjeet Kumar, AFP

IN DEEP WATERS: Forced out of their homes by the flood waters, these villagers in Madhepura district of Bihar go in search of temporary shelter. At right, a flood victim in the Raghunathpur area gets a food packet distributed by relief workers

PURNIA: There is no succour in sight for the lakhs of victims of one of the biggest man-made tragedies in the country.

A fortnight after a barrage on the Kosi river breached, spewing lakhs of tonnes of water into the countryside of at least four districts in northern Bihar bordering Nepal, the water level has receded at a few places. But that is a statistical issue. Miles and miles of this predominantly rural and dirt poor part of Bihar still remains under water.

The administration is helpless. It cannot wish the water away. The only way for the gargantuan sheets of water spread across several hundreds kilo meters is to follow the lay of land and find its way into the Ganges. If the water level in the Ganges is high, the water instead of flowing into it, spreads sideways. At places it is already cascading over roads having submerged those it encountered on way from the breached barrage.

At places the water level has gone down from six feet to four. Normal civic amenities still remain out of bounds for an estimated 30 lakh people who clambered on any available high ground or were desperate enough to wade through miles of flooded fields to reach safety.

Even today, several thousands remain marooned around their homes, on railway platforms where trains do not run any more and on any other highland they could reach. Their most precious asset, goats and cows, have been left to fend for themselves. The only succour for these people comes from IAF helicopters.

From the edge of every road that disappears under the waters, streams of villagers gingerly step down from boats being operated largely by the security forces.

This is an orderly evacuation — one that picked up momentum after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared the tragedy a national calamity after an aerial survey on August 28.

There are tiny enclaves of the myriad security forces on the edge of the vast sheet of water, their boats plunging back into the water as soon as they have disgorged their fresh load of the gaunt and the weak. A navy commander was carrying a newborn in a bundle of clothes. His men played the unlikely role of a mid-wife.

Children suffering from dehydration or diarrhoea are put on army trucks on way to hospitals while women in labour are packed off in ambulances to the nearest health centre. India of all hues stood shoulder to shoulder in an attempt to ameliorate the misery of these people who even in the best of times are left to their fate. Vans sponsored by non-governmental organisations and the corporate sector raced up and down ferrying the rescued. Army and Border Security Force trucks lumber past them, carrying boats, medicines and other supplies.

But politicians taking stock from the air clearly have no idea of the extent of the deficiency of the efforts.

Marauders on boats have broken into locked and flooded homes. Their pickings were easy because those fleeing their houses had stowed their valuables on the rafters of bamboo huts. Many girls were taken away with promises of safety.

There is no way the police can patrol such a vast devastated area.

Media reports recently forced the administration to confiscate all private boats. As Shakeel Ahmed, a former student leader of Jawaharlal Nehru University, says, “it would be a crime to call it a flood. No one bothered while warnings were given. Neither the Centre nor the State.”

One reason why the people are suffering to the extent they are, is because this area was never prone to floods. Farmers irrigated their land with bore-pumps.

The Kosi meandered towards the Ganges several kilometres away. And now their land is full of water no one wants.

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