SAHARSA, Bihar: Flood-hit Bihar is in dire need of international aid on the level of that seen after the 2004 Asian tsunami, a state official said yesterday. A large swathe of the already desperately state is likely to remain under water for several months, leaving authorities coping with at least a million people who have lost everything, officials and aid workers said.
“We will definitely need the support of international organisations and agencies, the same as after the tsunami (in 2004) or the Gujarat earthquake” in 2001, said Bihar Disaster Management Minister Nitish Mishra.
“It is not possible for just the government to have a complete rehabilitation policy on its own. Whatever more is available, we need it.”
The flooding started on August 18, when a river burst through defences upstream in Nepal and changed course to cut across a large rural area in Bihar state.
Officials said work to fix the flood walls and divert the Kosi river back to its normal course cannot begin before the rainy season ends in October, and may not even be completed before early next year.
About 600,000 people have already been evacuated from the flood plains, but 350,000 more still need to be plucked from roofs or isolated high ground and brought to safety, they say.
However aid workers said that in some areas the currents were still too strong, and that much of the food being dropped by air had landed in water.
“All the wells and water sources are gone. We foresee a scarcity of water, milk, food. Crops have been destroyed. Land will not be fit for cultivation for six to seven months after the waters recede,” said S P Singh, Red Cross chief in Bihar.
Aditi Kapur of the British aid group Oxfam said authorities were still struggling to come to terms with the disaster.
“The magnitude is greater than what the state has been able to handle. No one was prepared. More needs to be done,” she said.
UN agencies say a total of 3mn people have been affected by the disaster.
Evacuated villagers, some with buffaloes and cows they managed to rescue, have crowded into every safe building on the edge of the vast flood plain — schools, universities, temples and madrassas have all turned into shelters.
“A population of at least a million will be homeless and they may not get their homes back,” said Mukesh Puri, emergency specialist with the UN children’s agency Unicef.
In the worst-hit areas near the town of Saharsa, 150km east of the state capital Patna, only tree tops were visible above the water.
Some families were camped on road embankments.
Hira Sada, a 60-year-old farmer, said his village was neck-deep in water — leaving him and his extended family stuck on a road along with some livestock they managed to save.
“We can’t go back for at least three months. But what can we do? There is no work,” he said.
Experts and aid agencies blame government ineptness for not only failing to warn people but also for mishandling relief.
In the most shocking example, SOS fax messages sent by engineers at the Kosi dam warning of impending disaster were ignored in Patna, the Mail Today newspaper said.
The faxes piled up on the relevant bureaucrat’s desk because he was on leave and no deputy had been appointed. No one reacted even when warnings were sent to other officials, the paper said, calling for prosecutions for criminal negligence.
“We have come across such reports, and we will definitely look into this issue once all this is over,” Mishra said.
“There should definitely be some accountability.”
Anger is mounting and stick-wielding victims have resorted to looting food warehouses and trucks in some areas.
The threat of disease is also rising, but the government says it could take months before people can return home from camps.
“Neither us nor the people thought such a devastation could happen so suddenly,” said Mishra.
But aid agencies are unimpressed by the speed of the relief effort. Hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped on rooftops, elevated roads or surrounded by water in distant villages, without any food or water.
“On the ground, preparedness is missing in the current response,” said ActionAid’s P V Unnikrishnan. “Preparedness cannot be a knee-jerk reaction and currently preparing against disasters is not on the radar of the government.”
“The floods have pushed Bihar back to 50 years and authorities should be blamed for a slow response not the river,” said Rameshwar Prasad, a local historian and environmentalist.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the floods, as well hurricanes in the Atlantic, were reminders of the risks of ever more extreme weather linked to a changing climate.
Indian experts agree, saying the government must wake up to the complex issue of climate change quickly.
“It looks unusual for such heavy rains to hit Nepal and Bihar at the same time and cause floods so regularly,” Sunita Narain, a climate change expert said in New Delhi.
“We don’t have time now, we better get our act together now and prepare to face disasters tomorrow.” – Agencies | 
