Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh Floods

With the local meteorological office warning of further heavy rainfall over the State in the next 48 hours, the relief and rescue operation have been further intensified. 10 helicopters of the Indian Air Force and 56 mechanised and non-mechanised boats had been pressed into service. In addition 10 more helicopters have been despatched along with two battalions of paramilitary forces to help with the rescue and relief operations.

Thousands of people have been rendered homeless and various agencies - Government, voluntary agencies, religious groups, civil society and others have started providing initial emergency relief. Due to the flooding of agricultural lands the first harvest has gone to waste and this will have a major impact on food security in the longer term.

More than 70% of the households across Gujarat are affected. 41,000 persons in southern Gujarat (comprising Surat, Bharuch, Navsari, Valsad) and 25,000 persons in Vadodara alone have been displaced. According to information dated 5 July:

• Death toll stands at 135
• 1,000 villages marooned and inaccessible - Kheda, Anand, and Vadodara districts are the worst-affected
• Breaches in Pratappura, Ajwa and Khera Dams and high alert on 33 other dams
• NH-8 expressway seriously affected
• Power lines broken in 4,500 villages and 65 towns
• National Government has earmarked Rs. 50 billion for relief operations

Madhya Pradesh: The worst affected areas are Sagar, Chattarpur, Damoh, Sahra, Riva and Katni where 1 million people are severely affected. The death toll currently stands at 34 and 49,000 people have been evacuated to relief camps.

ACT members, Church Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) and the Lutheran World Service India (LWSI) are responding to the floods and an appeal will be issued soon.

CASA is currently utilising its emergency stocks to provide immediate relief to the most vulnerable in the worst affected areas in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The primary emphasis of the relief programme will be to provide cooked food and potable water to the affected population as well as relief sets, dry rations and plastic sheets for temporary shelter.

Locations for proposed response
CASA has mobilised 4 relief teams which will be operating in approximately 60 villages in Gujarat and town slum areas in the selected 7 districts i.e. Surat, Valsad, Navsari, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand and Kheda. The teams will consist of staff from the West Zone along with personnel from partner organisations and volunteers.

Each team will have adequate manpower and logistical support, to undertake survey and relief distribution simultaneously. Warehousing facilities have been arranged in each district. CASA senior staff from the West Zone will be co-ordinating operations from the Mumbai and Gujarat offices and ensure co-ordination with Government, other NGO’s, major church agencies, and other grassroots partner organisations.

CASA has had assessment staff in the field since 30 June and along with its partners have started the process to identify those whose needs are the greatest. This is done in co-operation with the local government agencies and village leaders. The needs will be measured in terms of the relative loss suffered (both in terms of people and property), socio-economic background of the selected beneficiary, and also the vulnerability factor of women and children, the elderly and infirm.

Planned Activities

• Provision of cooked food twice in a day for 7 days to 10,000 people.
• Provision of drinking water twice a day for 7 days to 10,000 people.
• Provision of dry rations to 10,000 families.
• Provision of plastic sheets to 10,000 families.
• Provision of clothing, utensils, blankets, candles and matches to 10,000 families.

Proposed budget

        440,000 

Note: This budget does not include CASA response in MP

CASA is also responding in Madhya Pradesh where it has started feeding centres at Katni and Sahra for 400 people and is further mobilising assistance to cover 700 families in the programme. CASA is also planning to assist 5,000 families with dry ration kits, relief kits and tarpaulins for temporary shelter.

The CASA proposal is currently being revised to include the Madhya Pradesh response.  

ACT member, Lutheran World Service India (LWSI) has been in continuous communicating with DISHA, one of their partner organisations based in Ahmedabad, through whom LWSI has been working on Community Based Disaster Preparedness activities. DISHA works through a large network of community-based organizations and local NGOs and has a presence in most of the flood affected districts. They have consequently been able to keep LWSI updated on the flood situation and the worst hit areas. As per the advice from LWSI, DISHA has already reached out to the worst affected areas and started providing cooked food to the flood affected people who have taken shelter in the relief camps.

The immediate requirements are ready-to-eat food as well as dry food rations, infant food, mosquito nets, blankets, tarpaulins and water and sanitation materials. LWSI plans to initiate the crisis phase intervention in the following areas covering around 5,000 families.

Proposed areas for intervention:

On account of LWSI commitments to the Tsunami Project and Assam Flood Relief Operations the capacity is stretched and hence intervention in Gujarat will be restricted to crisis phase operations only, focussing on immediate relief. LWSI does not expect the relief phase of the operations to last more than three months taking into consideration the monsoon season which is normally between June 15 to end of September.

LWSI is sending a small team with members from Head Office Monitoring and Procurement Cells to Ahemedabad by 7 July 2005 to join the DISHA team and start local procurement of relief materials. Subsequently a small team of community organisers with experience in relief distribution will be dispatched to guide and supplement the efforts of DISHA Teams and co-ordinate the activities.

The LWSI budget is expected to be within the range of USD 200,000 to 250,000 and the appeal proposal is expected to reach ACT by 7 July 2005.