 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Manipur is under siege: Schools have been closed since July 9; violent bandhs and curfews are the order of the day while there are subtle misgivings and misinformation about the recently announced peace accord arrived between the Government of India and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-IM.
Lost in the din and uproar on the streets over the police action on students taking part in protests calling for the imposition of an Inner Line System in Manipur is the fate of thousands of people in the Chandel and Thoubal districts and many others in Bishenpur, Churachandpur and Imphal West after heavy rains pounded their homes.
Chitra Ahanthem reports for Rediff.com on the long term humanitarian crisis that looms ahead in Chandel and Thoubal specifically and in other parts of the state.
IMAGE: At the relief camps people sleep on the floor.
Days of incessant rain last week led to major rivers in Manipur flowing well past their danger levels while most parts of Imphal witnessing acute water logging.
But it is the districts of Thoubal and Chandel that have borne the brunt of the heavy rains.
In the village of Joumol, located in the Khanbarol sub division of Chandel district, 20 people were washed away by flash floods triggered by a landslide.
The extent of the damage brought upon by the landslide can be gauged from the fact that a rescue team comprising of paramilitary personnel and members of the National Disaster Response Force have not been able to make much headway into the area and have had to return back.
The bout of water logging and flash floods in various parts of the state have also brought to light the lack of quality control with regard to roads and bridges constructed in the state with many bridges collapsing and dams showing cracks.
Going purely by script, political parties have accused the ruling Congress government of being responsible for contributing to the misery of the people by compromising on the quality of public infrastructure constructions and have not been able to contribute much towards providing relief to people affected by the floods.
For the people of Thoubal district the floods have dealt dual blows as their agricultural lands have been destroyed even as their houses reeled under the impact of water and slush.
In the village of Tentha, the fish farms have all been wiped out while many other villages have reported loss of livestock and grains.
With the state government engaged in various fire fighting activities more literally than can be imagined, with agitators asking for the imposition of the Inner Line Permit in the state are blocking roads and setting rubber tyres on fire, the relief work have taken a beating.
As of now, the state government have announced an ex gratia of Rs 500,000 for people who died when the floods hit, but the needs of thousands who have incurred losses are yet to be taken care of.
With the flood waters having receded, government agencies may well take the 'all is well' stand, but the truth is that the impact of the floods will be long term. When a friend offered to take this correspondent to Kakching, the second largest town in Thoubal district and which was reeling after the floods had hit, I set out to assess the situation for myself.
IMAGE: Children at a relief camp huddle over a game of carrom using mineral water bottle caps as carrom men.
As we drove out of Imphal towards Thoubal district, it was hard to miss paddy fields along the highway being submerged under water.
Once we reached Kakching, the sight of families huddled with their meager belongings huddled in community halls, schools and any other building standing on higher ground taking on the role of makeshift relief camps became common.
At these 'relief camps' people had nothing to sleep on except for a piece of cloth and men and women, boys and girls all cramped together.
Factor in the fact that Kakching in the 2011 census had a population of 28,746 people and that about 90 per cent of that population has been affected by the floods now, and one can work the math of the crisis at hand.
The biggest 'relief camp' turned out to be a yet unfinished indoor stadium that provided shelter to 650 villagers who are forced to share six toilets.
A visit to houses in the area meant having to negotiate with slush and one can see residents attempting to clean their houses and salvaging whatever they could.
Villagers would head to their homes to clean up and then return to the camps for their meals and to sleep. Those whose houses were totally swept away by the floods or on the verge of collapsing sat around listlessly. Residents of Kakching say it would take a minimum of 20 days for people to be able to return to their homes.
In the light of the absence of a government-led relief initiative, people in the flood affected areas have had to depend on area MLAs who are providing aid support in terms of grains, drinking water and getting in medical camps.
Various youth organisations and personal interventions have come up to the aid of the flood affected but the sheer extent of the damage means that there is going to be a need for long-term rehabilitation initiatives.
Some aid initiatives have been triggered through social networking sites with many volunteers seeking aid and financial donations.
To begin with, it was the updates from the ground in the form of photo uploads on various social networking sites that people began to realise the extent of the damage caused by the floods: There were no official updates from government departments with regard to the extent of the flood, its impact and what initiatives are being taken up.
A long term humanitarian crisis looms ahead in Chandel and Thoubal specifically and to other parts of the state.