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While the administration blames the inclement weather for its inability to provide aid to hundreds of thousands of flood survivors, local people say the government has simply not acted quickly enough
Days after they were marooned, thousands of flood-affected villagers in Orissa's Kendrapada district are growing desperate for aid, even as incessant rains hamper rescue and relief work in the area. People in many places reported a severe dearth of cattle feed, baby food and drinking water.
As the administration struggles to cope with the humanitarian crisis in its coastal areas, the survivors' desperation is slowly turning to anger. The administrative head of Kendrapada district was transferred as the state government's rapid disaster response system failed, but that did not calm the protests. Orissa's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik faced angry protests in Shyamsundarpur on September 1, while Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal was heckled by flood-affected people the next day.
Forty-eight hours after floods swept through the region, the chief minister, who reviewed the situation in Kendrapada, ordered the distribution of seven days' emergency relief in the affected areas. But, the villagers say, the government did nothing for almost 30 hours after the floods. "There is complete devastation in my village of Kacjeripada. It's neck-deep in water. Houses are damaged. Our cattle has been washed away. But there is still no sign of any government help," said one survivor.
Another man, huddled with his family in a narrow space, was desperately looking for polythene sheets to shelter them from the rain. "I had come here for shelter with my daughter and granddaughter. And you can see we don't even have a piece of polythene to cover our heads."
Despite claims of preparedness to meet the situation, the local administration was apparently caught napping at a few places where relief and rescue operations could not be carried out, inviting the people's ire.
Although the administration provided over 140 boats for relief and rescue work, they could not be used because of the inclement weather, sources said.
Reports from the district say boats required for relief and rescue operations did not reach many waterlogged areas as the floodwaters breached NH-5 A at Chhagaria. Even if the boats did get there in small numbers, after 36 hours of floods, they would have been useless, as the water had begun to recede.
Meanwhile, heavy rains have threatened to submerge new areas. The number of people affected has risen to over 4 lakh, even as floodwaters enter new areas, Kendrapada district emergency office sources say.
Over the weekend, floodwaters swept through the Daitari-Paradeep highway submerging parts of Kendrapada district, which is among the worst hit. Thousands of people were trapped by the floodwaters in hundreds of villages in coastal regions.
Three breaches in the embankments of the Luna and Chitrotpala, and the washing away of a portion of the national highway, turned many areas of the district into a vast sea of water. Special Relief Commissioner Jagadananda Panda, however, allayed apprehensions about water being released into the Mahanadi river from the Hirakud dam. The discharge at Mundali was measured at 7 lakh cusecs, while eight of the 16 sluices of the dam kept open have been closed, he said.
Floodwaters also inundated 65 panchayats of neighbouring Jagatsinghpur district, affecting an estimated 80,000 people.
Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in the past few days have left up to 2 million people homeless and damaged thousands of acres of paddy crop in Orissa, officials said on September 3.
Source: PTI, September 4, 2006
NDTV, September 3, 2006
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