Urgent Appeal : Bihar Floods 2017
Please find the message below from our Jeevansaathi Kamayani who lives and works in Araria in North Bihar. She and her team are reaching out to 5000 families for immediate relief.
This is an urgent appeal to help the victims of sudden floods in North Bihar. As you may already know Araria, Kishanganj and Purnia have been worst affected by floods. Twenty people have died in Araria alone. More than 65 lakhs people in Bihar have been affected as per the government reports across twelve districts. Three towns of Araria district namely, Forbesganj, Jogbani and Araria are witnessing unprecedented levels of water. Flood is a regular feature of North Bihar but this year seems exceptional in its intensity.
In Bihar, the JJSS team along with Kamayani and Ashish are towards the end of doing the relief work of distributing dry ration, tarpaulin to about 5000 families. For the medium to long term work they are looking at helping with the homes that have been severely damaged. We will be updating this page with details soon.
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Kamayani is an AID Jeevansaathi who lives and works in Araria has been organizing relief as official help has been inadequate. Here is a message from her:
Dear Friends,
This is an urgent appeal to help the victims of the sudden floods in North Bihar. As you may already know Araria, Kishanganj and Purnia have been the worst affected by floods. Twenty people have died in Araria alone. About 65 lakh people in Bihar have been affected as per the government reports across twelve districts. The three towns of Araria district namely, Forbesganj, Jogbani and Araria are witnessing unprecedented levels of water.
Our own home was inundated and we can say that what we are going through is much less than what people residing in villages are facing. Floods are a regular feature of North Bihar but this year seems exceptional in its intensity. It reminds one of the catastrophe of the 2008 floods.
The Rail connection has been disrupted. The Jogbani station is flooded. Many villages have lost road connections. Army and Air Force teams have joined the NDRF team to rescue people and help with the crisis. Lakhs of people are stranded and have taken shelter on canals, in school buildings and places of higher altitude.
People were not forewarned and that has made the situation worse. The cause of the floods is heavy rains in the catchment area of several rivers that flow in this region (the catchment area is in Nepal) and that causing a breach in the embankments of rivers and canals.
We are disappointed that the government could not predict the rising water level and there was no warning. However, this is not the time to focus our energies on the causes of this disaster.
Relief will have to be a phased effort. Immediate Relief Items that people have asked for:
Round 1. Torch, Candles, Match Boxes, Dry Ration (Sattu, Chuda, Gud) and Basic Medicines.
Round 2. (after the water recedes a little): Plastic sheets, Clothing (sari, lungi, vest, sanitary napkins and such items), Basic Medicines.
The next round will have to plan for the post flood epidemic. Here we shall focus on health camps. Later on we would need to provide warm blankets for the winter (starting November end) as people have lost most of their belongings.
We are planning to do relief operations. We plan to reach at least 10 thousand people. We may expand as we are trying to build a coalition of groups.
We urge and request you to open your hearts and please help in whichever way you can.
Regards
Ashish and Kamayani
