[Assam] Doctors on rafts bring hope to flooded-hit people (The Sentinel, 31.07.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

Doctors on rafts bring hope to flooded-hit people
Dhemaji, July 30: As the rain-swollen Brahmaputra river flooded Asom displacing nearly four million people, 26-year-old Swarnalata Pegu on Monday scampered up and down a mud embankment looking for medicines for her baby boy. 
“My son is down with fever and loose motions since the last two days and I am at a total loss. I was told the nearest primary health centre has been submerged in flood waters,” she said in between sobs. 
Pegu was nearing a breakdown when a team of doctors arrived at village Budhwar in Dhemaji district, over 500 km east of Guwahati, on a rubber raft, bringing a faint smile on her face. 
Like Pegu, there are hundreds of mothers whose children are down with fever and waterborne diseases in Dhemaji, the worst hit by the raging floods. 
At least 250,000 people in the district were displaced with floodwaters submerging their villages - some of them literally washed away by the high current. 
“As you can see the ground is slushy and we all are virtually sleeping on mud and filth with rains lashing down heavily. This is like a curse on us,” rued Kuntal Deka, a villager. 
Heavy monsoon rains have triggered flash floods and landslides in the north-eastern states of Asom and Meghalaya for the past one week, killing at least 20 people and displacing 4.1 million. 
Five people were drowned overnight in separate incidents in Asom. Last week, nine people were killed in a massive landslide in Meghalaya and six others drowned in Asom. 
“We have been trying our best by providing food, medicines, polythene sheets and rushing in doctors and veterinarians for the flood affected people,” said Assam’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Bhumidhar Barman. 
The Brahmaputra is flowing about 2.5 meters above the danger level in some areas. 
“We were sleeping when we suddenly heard the gurgling sound of water inside our home. We just had time to escape leaving behind everything,” Nayantara Bora, an elderly woman, said. 
“All our belongings, including rice, poultry and cattle have been washed away.” 
Thousands of flood-hit villagers here are struggling to survive in makeshift tents on mud embankments and other raised bamboo platforms. 
“So far, we have opened about nine relief camps and more than 1,200 temporary shelters. We have been providing rice, salt and pulses to the people, besides installing hand pumps for drinking water,” said Dhemaji Deputy Commissioner Diwakar Mishra. Dhemaji has remained cut off from the rest of Asom with the highway breached in about five points. “This is just the beginning of a long and miserable flood season. Nature has always been very unkind to us,” said Milan Das, an elderly farmer, at one of the relief camps. (IANS)
  (The Sentinel,31.07.2007) 
   



       
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