Risk Wise

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Relief to risk reduction – a paradigm shift

Sanjeev K. Bhanja and Ramesh Babu, EFICOR

lood is a recurrent phenomenon in northern parts of Bihar

in India. The Dalit community, especially the Ram,

Paswans and Musahars, bear the brunt of flooding and its

resultant hazards. Women, adolescent girls and children are the

worst sufferers. The flooding and its aftermath badly affect their

living standards. Victims take shelter on embankments and

railway tracks, often under the open sky. Some take shelter on the

rooftops of school buildings or neighbours, if space is available.

Scarcity of food and drinking water compels people to consume

minimal amounts. People often drink contaminated floodwater thereby

risking diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases. Agricultural crops

are damaged and livestock is washed away. The floodwater destroys

road connectivity and communication between hamlets and villages,

thus cutting the community off from the nearby towns. Schools remains

closed for about three months during the flood season, which runs

from July/August to September/October. The post-flood season sees

heavy migration due to lack of wage opportunities in the agricultural

sector, which is the major source of livelihood for these communities.

Poor governance and improper service provision by the government

compounds the vulnerability of the flood-affected community in Bihar.

Bihar is one of the most populous states in India and is prone to

various disasters. It has a population of about 120 million and is one

of the poorest states in India, with about 42 per cent of the popula-

tion living below the poverty line. It is a land-locked central Indian

state that lies in the Gangetic basin, accounting for 16.5 per cent of

the flood-prone area and 22.1 per cent of the flood-affected popula-

tion of India.

A brief recent history of flooding in Bihar follows:

during the last decade the state was inundated at least

four times with the 2004 and 2007 floods being the

worst. The rivers that regularly inundate the plains are

the Kosi, Bagmati, Budhigandak and the Ganga and its

tributaries.

In 1999, 800,000 people were displaced due to floods.

During the 2001 flood 22 districts, 183 blocks, 1,653

panchayats and 5,477 villages were affected. It affected

81.28 lakh people and took 203 lives. The floods in 2004

affected over 9,333 villages spread over 20 districts in

the state, claiming 683 human lives and killing 2,354

livestock; and damaging about 717,000 houses in an

area of 4.986 million hectares. A population of over 21

million was affected and crops covering an area of 1.34

million hectares destroyed.

In early July 2007, Bihar faced its worst floods in 50

years due to heavy rains in the catchment areas in Nepal,

causing breaches in embankments along many parts of the

Kosi, Bagmati, and Budhigandak rivers and tributaries,

inundating the surrounding areas. The flooding affected

more than 9,333 villages spread over 28 districts in the

state, according to government reports. The flooding

claimed more than 900 human lives,

killed about 4,000

livestock and damaged 600,000 houses in an area of 4.986

million hectares. A population of over 21 million was

affected and crops covering an area of 4.34 million hectares

destroyed. Railway bridges and tracks were completely

washed out in several places.

Civil society organizations, non-governmental organi-

zations (NGOs, both international and national), bilateral

agencies and government have always responded to flood

emergencies in Bihar with relief assistance; as has the

Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission On Relief

(EFICOR), a national level NGO with expertise in relief

and disaster management. However, resource generation

for relief depends on the nature of coverage by national

and international media, particularly electronic.

Coverage of the 2007 south Asia flood by international

and national media shaped the mindset of international

government donors towards intervention.

In response to the flood emergency in Bihar in 2004,

EFICOR intervened with relief assistance in Madhubani,

Muzafarpur, Madhepura, Begusarai and Samastipur

districts, catering to the food, temporary shelter and sani-

tation needs of 21,000 families at a cost of USD500,000.

The story was repeated during the 2007 flood with fewer

families (16,000) supplied at a cost of USD300,000.

A flood shelter built on raised gound in Gandhrayan village

Image: EFICOR, DRR Project, Madhubani, Bihar