A week-long relief work, travelling in country boats and wading through mud and knee-deep water in the flood-affected tribal hamlets of Devipatnam and Polavaram mandals across the Godavari river, has turned into a memorable adventure experience to a 12-member team of women volunteers of the Bangarupalem-based Women’s Association for Liberation, Transformation and Community Health (WATCH).
With no practical knowledge about the topography of the forested and hilly terrain along the riverside, the WATCH team had reached Kondrukota panchayat of Polavaram mandal of West Godavari district on September 3 evening, when it was raining there. After a night stay at a hut, the relief team, assisted by local people, took up distribution of relief material, including rice, pulses, oil and clothes, to about 200 families in about three hamlets of the mandal.
‘Gruelling journey’
Though the team managed the relief distribution in hamlets of Kondrukota panchayat, the tough job of crossing the Godavari river stood before them the next day. “It was a three-and-half-hour journey in a country boat to reach Devipatnam mandal of East Godavari. We thought we could cover the distance by road, but it would take one day, taking circuitous route. On the advice of local people and with their assistance, we hired two boats and crossed the river, negotiating serpentine river course,” WATCH chairperson P. Sree Latha has said.
In all, the relief material supplied by the Sign of Hope, a German-based NGO, had covered around 600 families of the two flood-affected mandals of the Godavari district.
Relief distribution
Commencing their relief distribution at Agraharam village of Devipatnam mandal in East Godavari, the team members covered some of the hamlets such as Ganugula Gondhi and Veeravaram. “On our arrival at Veeravaram hamlet, we found that four women along with their children had taken shelter on a hill slope close to the river, after their colony was inundated. Four or five families together were seen cooking meal with an available gas stove to arrange community lunch, using the muddy river waters,” says Swarna, member of WATCH.
The team members say that they wade through knee-deep waters, sometimes going up waist, while negotiating the hamlets surrounded by waters. For making night halts, the team could make tents on the hill slopes, watching the river level along the banks raising and falling frequently.
“Whenever it rained, we felt the chill in our hearts, but remained reassured by the villagers. They said there would no danger on the slopes, but at homes,” says Dhanasekharan, who assisted the relief party.
‘Poor living conditions’
According to Ms. Sree Latha, it was a memorable experience for them undertaking the distribution of relief in the flooded areas. “The living conditions of the ST hamlets where we had travelled are really appalling, as the population remained cut off from the mainstream,” she says.
The WATCH team, which returned to Bangarupalem a couple of days ago, says that whenever they heard reports of the Godavari in spate it invariably made them recall the spectacle of families taking shelter on hill slopes. They say more than water, it was the presence of snakes at every stretch that had bothered them most.
