Marooned Villagers In Odisha Forced To Drink Floodwaters

Bhubaneswar: Unable to get potable water in several marooned areas of Odisha, a number of people are compelled to drink what is available, muddy and contaminated water that has accumulated in the past few days due to flood.

Though water in flooded rivers has receded significantly, many villages still remained marooned. Many mud houses have collapsed or damaged, while food has become scarce. Diarrhoea cases are also being reported from the 14 flood-struck districts with people are drinking contaminated water, reports said.

People are managing with dry food like flattened rice, but are unable to get a drop of water to drink. As tubewells and other sources of drinking water are submerged in the flood. “We are forced to drink the flood water,” a resident of Baliapal area in Balasore district told PTI.

Villagers are not even able to boil the floodwater and make them drinkable due to lack of fuel. Those who had cooking gas connection are also affected as cylinders have been swept away along with other household articles after floodwaters entered houses, he said.

There is no power in the area due to the flood and water cannot be supplied under the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation scheme.

An elderly woman from Uluda village under Bishnupur gram panchayat said she is not able to cook due to unavailability of dry firewood and elderly people, who could not be evacuated, are virtually starving.

She said she has been surviving with watered rice which was cooked a couple of days ago before the floodwaters of the Subarnarekha river inundated their village.

The Balasore administration, however, maintained that it is providing food to over 7,000 evacuated people who are lodged in 40 shelter homes.

Of the 136 marooned villages in Balasore district on Wednesday, 115 are in Baliapal block, sources said.

The situation is more or less similar in other affected blocks like Bhograi, Basta and Jaleswar, Harish Behra, a schoolteacher, was quoted by the news agency as saying.

There is scarcity of drinking water, polythene sheets and healthcare services for the elderly and pregnant women, he said.

Women in groups are going on boats in search of a place where they can attend to nature’s call.

Director of Public Health Service, Dr Niranjan Mishra, said that 900 cases of diarrhoea have been reported from 14 flood-affected districts. The disease spreads due to consumption of contaminated water.

The Water Resources Department said that the flood situation has improved in the Mahanadi and Subarnarekha river system.

The peak floodwater has already passed, but it may take time for the water to recede from villages in low laying areas, the department’s chief engineer B K Mishra said.

Residents of Ganjam district have sent three truck loads of essential materials such as water bottles, dry food packets, medicine kits and other items for the flood-affected people of Balasore district.