Real Risk

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ULY

2004, Bihar state in India faced its worst floods in 50

years. The water inundated over 20 districts affecting 21,251

million people in 9,360 villages.

The Evangelical Fellowship,

India Commission on Relief (EFICOR) intervened in this flood

providing relief to 21,245 families in 92 villages of Begusarai,

Madhepura, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur districts

and spending USD299,735 (INR12,888,578).

EFICOR is a relief and development agency that has been

involved in managing drought, cyclone, flooding, epidemics and

earthquakes through all phases of the disaster cycle in India for

the past 39 years. Apart from responding to minor disasters,

EFICOR has provided emergency relief to some 83,000 families,

and built about 1,700 permanent houses and a few thousand

temporary shelters in eight major disaster areas since 1977.

EFICOR bases its relief operation on the ‘Red Cross Code of

Conduct’ and is one of the pioneering organizations that initi-

ated the institutionalization of the SPHERE project in India. It

also organizes project management and disaster management

workshops and seminars for smaller local partners.

EFICOR has been involved in four community based disaster

preparedness (CBDP) projects covering about 42 villages in

Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar. Recently it initi-

ated a Department for International Development (DFID)-funded

two-phase project on natural disaster risk reduction in India

intending to cover about 50 additional villages in Bihar, Orissa

and Assam in five years.

After the flood relief operations in Bihar, EFICOR started a miti-

gation project in April 2005 to reduce disaster risk in Madhubani,

a flood-prone district situated in the northern part of Bihar which

shares its northern border with the Himalayan country of Nepal.

EFICOR is involved in community based disaster risk reduction

in 20 villages in Khutona, Andhrathardi and Madhepur sub-

divisions (blocks) which are 36 to 42 kilometres from Madhubani

town, the district headquarters.

Reasons for involvement

Bihar, especially its northern districts like Madhubani, is one of

the most flood-prone states of India and faces floods every year.

The UNDP Disaster Risk Management Programme, which is

being implemented in the 12 most disaster-prone states in India,

recognizes Madhubani as one of the 125 most disaster-prone

districts.

Here, floods normally occur in mid-July and may

recur in August or September, thus July to September is consid-

ered the flood season. These floods are generally due to excessive

water from Nepal being released through the rivers Kosi,

Bhadrak and Ganga into India. The river Kosi and its tributaries

Kamlabalan, Sugervae and Kosi flow through Madhubani

district.

Not only is Madhubani one of the most flood-prone districts

in the country, it is also one of the poorest and most backward

districts. With a land area of 3,501 square kilometres and a

population of 3.57 million, the district supports 1,020 people per

square kilometre. The literacy rate in the population aged seven

years and older is 42.35 per cent, with 57.26 per cent for males

and 26.56 per cent for females, lower than the respective rates

of the state. About 96 per cent of its population lives in rural

areas and are marginal farmers or daily wage labourers.

The intervention is planned to bring about natural disaster

risk reduction through capacity building and community-based

mitigation and preparedness. This intervention began with a

participatory assessment of disaster risk, the findings of which

were incorporated in the project proposal.

Participatory assessment of disaster risk

A participatory analysis of disaster risk (PADR) was undertaken

in September 2004 in Samastipur and Madhubani blocks.

Different participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques such as

social mapping, resource mapping and focus group discussions

were used to analyse the kind of disaster risk the community was

facing and the severity of that risk. This exercise showed that the

area faces frequent flooding, besides fire, earthquakes and

Mitigating Madhubani’s menace

Kennedy Dhanabalan, Director, Development Education and Capacity Building and Esther Ghosh,

Officer, Disaster Management Unit, Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief

Resource mapping in Mushari Tola

Photo: EFICOR