A confirmed death toll of 200 (expected to increase), ten million people affected including more thhttp://welthungerhilfesouthasia.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=1684&action=edit&message=1an 1.2 million displaced, hundreds thousands of houses damaged, submerged fields and shortage of drinking water and food. This is the gloomy situation that India is facing, after a week of heavy monsoon rains and in the aftermath of cyclone Komen.
Extreme rainfalls that had been plaguing the states of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Manipur and Odisha, were exacerbated by a tropical cyclone that developed over the northern Bay of Bengal on July 29 and eventually reached tropical storm strength and moved inland the following day. West Bengal seems to be the most affected, with 83 cases (the number is unofficially continuously increasing) of people dying from lightning strikes, wall collapsing, electrocution, drowning and snake-bites. Due to the cyclone, the state witnessed a rainfall of 1026 mm, almost three times the normal rainfall of 389 mm. In West Bengal, more than 214,000 people are currently taking shelter in the 1,537 relief camps set up in the districts affected more badly. The floods inundated Health and Integrated Children Development Service (ICDS) centres, making them unusable. The submerging of make-shift toilets has led to a very risky situation due to the contamination of water.
Welthungerhilfe Fight Hunger First Initiative (FHFI) project areas in South 24Parganas have been badly affected, with 24 villages and 82,721 people in very grim conditions. The main concern is about the spreading of water-borne diseases as well as the situation of children and pregnant/lactating mothers, who cannot benefit anymore from the nutrition support, as the ICDS centres are closed.
In Manipur, where Welthungerhilfe is currently implementing the “Empowering Women for Peace and Development in South Asia” project, the situation is worrying too. While so far only four deaths have been confirmed, the number will certainly increase as a whole village has been washed away by floods and a landslide. Hundreds of thousands are currently living in makeshift camps, with roads and bridges connecting villages greatly damaged, in what seems to be the worst floods in the last 200 years.
It will take at least 20 days for people to be able to return to their homes – those who still have one. In the meantime, more rain is expected in the next few days, putting an additional strain on people who have already lost so much and are wondering how they will build their future again, after these dramatic losses.
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