DH Radio | The Lead: The Brahmaputra and Covid-19 engulf Assam

In this episode, get to know the ground situation in Assam, a state that is seeing the fury of the flood and the travails of the pandemic, at the same time.

Excerpts:

Ahmed Shariff: When did Assam start facing issues from floods?

Sumir Karmakar: This year Assam faced flood from May onwards, as we speak today 15 districts are affected by flood and more than 1 lakh people are affected by the flood. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, 270 villages are still inundated and 1.43 lakh people are affected and 3, 105 people are still in relief camps even today. This year what happened actually is that the flood was consistent. Its tarted in May and it is still on. So, in fact, this year it was more compared to the past. 20% of Assam's population has been affected and out of 33 districts, 30 districts were affected. 110 people have died in the flood and this is the scenario as of today...

Sumir: Dear listeners we are joined by Dr Chiranjeeb Kakoty, who is a doctor based in Guwahati and leads an NGO called Northeast society for the promotion o youth and masses. Welcome to DH podcast, Dr Kakoty.
This is regarding the serious flood that Assam is facing. This year Assam is facing the flood in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic. Since you are visiting the affected areas and your team members are on the ground, so give us an idea about the situation.

Dr Kakoty: Sumir, this time as you know that 30-31 districts of Assam have been affected by the flood that is about 31 lakh population of Assam which is approximately about 14 lakh of children. Floods in Assam are not new, what is news is the juxtaposition of Covid-19 and floods. However, let us be clear about one thing that one is not serious than the other. Both are serious and both are having a great impact on the lives of people. We already have 100 deaths due to Covid-19, 100 deaths due to floods and more importantly 75 deaths due to Japanese encephalitis syndrome. Now, having said that, we need to be mindful of four core issues. Number 1 is the livelihood issue, because of the lockdown whatever savings people had have got exhausted in the last three months and poor people don't have the savings to last themselves for three months, maybe two months is what they on average save for. And now, when we have flood, these people who have invested their money for flood conditions, like for food, clothing and for medical care but the source of income has stopped because of Covid-19 and this is having the direct impact on the health. If you go to government setting or a private setting, the priority is on Covid. Everything is Covid-centric as a result other health needs have been left on a second or a third priority...

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