Ende Juni erreichten uns dramatische Berichte aus dem Midnapur Distrikt im Süden Westbengalens, in dem die Indienhilfe seit vielen Jahre zwei Projekte zur Verbesserung der Lebensbedingungen der Adivasi, die dort in extremster Armut leben, unterstützt. Die starken Regenfälle des Monsoons, die bis zu 20 Stunden anhielten, führten zu massiven Überflutungen: in vielen Dörfern sind die Menschen völlig von der Aussenwelt abgeschnitten, die meisten Lehmhütten sind eingestürzt, da sie den Wassermassen nicht stand halten konnten. Die Menschen haben ihre wenigen Besitztümer verloren: Häuser, Kleidung, Saatgut, Tiere.... Die Kinder konnten nicht zur Schule gehen, selbst in der nahegelegenen Stadt konnten die Menschen ihre Häuser nicht verlassen, da in den Strassen meterhoch das Wasser stand.

Email Sudarshan Dey, IDP Midnapur Project (2. Juli 2008)

Perhaps you are aware about the flood situation in West Bengal .This time Nayagram,Gopiballavpur and Kesheari Block were effected too. You cannot imagine that this time even I had to remain in the house for 4 days as water logged in Kharagpur and in my home. Most of the villages in Baligeria  Basinda and Salboni unit are effected badly. People lost their houses, seeds, utensils, clothes, lots of cows are dead or washed away during floods and now the dead bodies are polluting the water and the environment.

CRS has come forward to support the  flood victims. So far we have distributed Rice (6.67 kg/HH), Dal (0.35kg/HH) and Oil (0.4 kg/Hh) for more than 1.500 families in our unit. Now they have asked for a re-assessment to provide more food and help to build houses or purify the source of drinking water for them. For the last two weeks we all are stationed in different areas to ensure distribution of foods to the victims. Almost all the NFTCs were closed till last week and slowly we are opening them one by one.

Sibani Bhattacharya, IHK Office (3. Juli 2008)

As I was reading in newspaper articles that nobody imagined timely monsoon which is yet a blessing this year for suicide striken farming areas of west and central India, but would turn a lethal depression for coastal West Bengal. The climate change will show many such  horrors if we as society visibly don't change our attitude towards natural components. Saraswati of EVS told us that there had been many big and very old trees at riversides in Nayagram block and those are under continuous illicit felling in last 3-4 years. Now mostly barren river side is open for extreme soil erosion and  the result is flood for last two years!! Few  people protested but the majority either indifferent or benefitted by money in linkages so it is going on.....Now please tell me where is the civil society which will first understand if you don't allow a river a riverbed then it will prefer to flow on your houses and then make people or their administration realise what is cost and what is benefit out of their deal!! And also to protest against very casual behaviour of state in releasing dam water with out informing to corners of catchment!!! As you had been a professional in that field, after few months of these very important curative intiatives, pl. keep a strong preventive approach blended with all other planned activties to raise a mass awareness on the issue.

Email Sudarshan Dey, IDP Midnapur Project (3. Juli 2008)

As you have correctly pointed out that it is we, who are responsible for this kind of natural calamities, as we failed to take care of mother nature. Lot of trees have vanished  from the forest and non forest areas and land has been converted and used for agriculture, particularly if you travel through the banks of Keleghai river you can notice the changes. I think that causes massive siltation. If you remember Subornorekha Bridge (Bhosraghat) way to Baligeria… the changes are more visible, the river is getting silted every year and the old bridges are now gone down bellow the sand. On an average every year the river bed is raised by 9 to 10 inches. It reminds me of an old man who used to say … Paying price….i think we have started paying the price..

But getting associated for the relief work and visiting the villages in the remotest corner of Narayangarh and Kesheary block my feeling is …now it's the time to help the community by preparing them for this type of calamities.. what we called "disaster preparedness". Because unless Govt  renovates the Keleghai river it will be the same story  every year. During relief work I met a man who is  62 years old.  He  lost and rebuilt his house thrice in a span of two years. Can we think of it?? This year he had to take shelter in a tree for 24 hrs to save his life. But I feel a little bit of initiative can bring a lot of change and can reduced the economic loss. One example could be instead of preparing house only with mud blocks which is easily carried out by water during flood and causes roof to fall, if they use 6-10 pillars (preferably concrete if not wooden) and if they prepare the side wall with structure of bamboo  and then apply mud.. then during flood the mud may be washed away but the main structure with roof will remain erected. A small bunk made with bamboo at the hight of say 6 ft can be used for storing the seed grains and can be used for shelter for the children and old person during flash flood. This will cost around Rs. 6000 to 10000 depending on how strong u want it.

Indienhilfe e.V. Projekte
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Auch wenn die Hilfe schnell und unbürokratisch erfolgt, werden alle Fälle von unseren Mitarbeitern vor Ort überprüft und die Kosten genau abgerechnet. So ist der effektive und effiziente Einsatz Ihrer Spende gewährleistet!