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India Flood Toll Rises; Bihar Camp Conditions Poor, Oxfam Says


By Jay Shankar




Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Floods killed 80 people in north and
east India, taking the national death toll since the onset of
monsoon rains in June to 2,483 as the charity Oxfam India said
living conditions in camps are poor in Bihar.
The deaths occurred in the northern states of Bihar,
Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa and West Bengal in the
east, Dev Kumar, director of the National Disaster Management
Division, said in a release posted on the division's Web site.
More than 10 million people have been displaced by the
floods and army and navy personnel have been deployed after
rivers overran embankments and changed course, inundating
villages. The June-September annual monsoon season accounts for
four-fifths of the country's rainfall.
``In terms of intensity, scale and poverty, the impact of
these floods is the worst,'' Depinder Kapoor, director for
programs and advocacy at Oxfam India, said in a telephone
interview from the capital New Delhi. ``The biggest camps are six
kilometers (3.7 miles) long and are set up on the side of
roads.''
Living conditions in the camps in Bihar are poor and people
have to ``crawl into the camps made of plastic sheets which are
about three to four feet high,'' Kapoor said. ``It's very hot
inside these sheets.''
About 400 relief camps in Bihar accommodate 423,178 people,
according to the government. The so-called ``mega camps'' form a
refuge for about 5,000 households, Kapoor said.
Bihar, one of India's poorest states, has been the hardest
hit with 235 people killed after the Kosi River broke through a
dam in neighboring Nepal on Aug. 18, flooding Supaul district 7
kilometers downstream. The river shifted 120 kilometers eastward,
inundating 16 districts.
Bihar Evacuations
About 1 million people have been evacuated from low-lying
regions in northeastern Bihar, where 19 people died yesterday,
the federal government said. As many as 18 districts were hit and
4.7 million people have been displaced.
``In terms of the number of people affected, it is
comparable to the tsunami'' of December 2004, G. Padmanabhan,
emergency analyst at the United Nations Development Programme,
said in a telephone interview from Purnea in Bihar.
The tsunami was an easier disaster to handle, he said.
``It was only a narrow belt along the coastal area and
within three kilometers inside you had normal life with all the
materials available,'' he said. ``Here, practically whole
districts are affected.''
The camps are ``well managed,'' though there are some
problems with sanitation, Padmanabhan said.
``They are trying to fix this as soon as possible,'' he said.
``There is the potential threat of disease and the administration
is gearing up to handle this.''
Uttar Pradesh Toll
At least 14 people died in the past two days in Uttar
Pradesh, according to the government. About 2.6 million people
have been displaced in 23 districts of the state.
In West Bengal, where 11 people have died in the past two
days, 27,587 people are housed in 31 relief camps. In neighboring
Orissa state, 775 relief camps accommodate 339,815 people.
There is a need for the camps to be decentralized and
scattered wider, Kapoor said. A majority of the government camps
are close to district headquarters near towns and away from the
affected villages.
``There is a shortage of food and large-scale migration in
Bihar,'' Kapoor said. ``There is no package, a declaration or
assurance from the government for rehabilitation, including some
shelter and revival of agriculture.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jay Shankar in Bangalore at
jshankar1@....

Lt. Col. (Retd.) Bajrang Bihari Singh
Head Administration Apollo International School & Raunaq Public School
Raunaq Education Foundation C/O Apollo Tyres Mobile: 91-9729057707
e-mail:bajrangsin@...  


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