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How to live with flood? Assam villagers show the way

Last Updated 03 August 2020, 15:19 IST

Ramprasad Sarkar still remembers the July night his family spent on a chang (bamboo platform) inside his home in 2015 in the flooded Alisinga village in North Assam's Lakhimpur district. "We were clueless as water level increased so fast. There was no boat or a highland nearby where we could take shelter," said Sarkar, a farmer and father of four children.

Alisinga gets flooded by the Brahmaputra and two of its tributaries--Ranganadi and Subansiri almost every year. This year was no different as the area witnessed 6 to 7 feet deep water with equally strong currents between May and July. This time, Sarkar and other villagers, however, were not so worried. "After the 2015 floods, we all raised the platform of our houses. So water could not enter my home. We were more alert as flood early warning was announced through the mikes installed in our village," Sarkar said.

At least 25 villages including Alisinga under Telahi block in Lakhimpur, one of the most flood vulnerable villages in Assam now has at least two country boats, a public address system to share flood warning, a shelter home constructed on a highland for the marooned people and for the livestocks, elevated hand pumps and toilets. Each village, inhibited by Mishing, Bengali and other Assamese communities also has a disaster risk management committee and many are trained on flood rescue and first aid.

All these flood-resistant mechanisms have been made possible by Indo Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), an NGO, which started its project--Recovery and Risk Reduction of flood affected communities in Lakhimpur district in 2016. The project has been funded by HDFC bank.

"Apart from the rivers, sudden release of water from NEEPCO's hydel power project in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh creates havoc in the downstream areas like these villages. The weak embankments are washed away making the flood more furious. Boats becomes the only means of communication. So since there is no solution in sight for the flood, we decided to equip the villages with flood-resilient infrastructure and knowledge to help them live with the deluge and reduce impact," Dharani Payeng, assistant manager of IGSSS told DH over phone.

"We first provided training on flood rescue and first aid with the help of the district disaster management authority and other agencies. For example, they were taught on how to make stretcher with big utensils or life jackets with used plastic bottles. We installed public address system in each village, provided two boats to each village, constructed 42 toilets on raised platforms and 85 elevated hand pumps. We installed solar power panels as electricity is disrupted during floods and constructed shelter for both humans and livestocks. This significantly reduced the risk on their lives and livelihoods," Payend said.

A total of 1,413 households having more than 7,500 people have adopted the flood resilient means so far since 2016. "Most of the villagers have now learnt how to reduce impact of annual flood on their lives and livelihoods," he said.

Flood in Assam this year killed 110 people and affected over 50 lakh people in 30 of 33 districts. Over 3.80 lakh people in 17 districts remained affected even on Monday.

Support to livelihoods

As flood destroys the crops, the villagers adopted the flood resilient paddy varieties such as Ranjit sub 1, Bahadur sub 1, Kanaklata, Jal Kuwori and Jalshree, which can withstand flood water upto two weeks. The paddy varieties, developed by Assam Agriculture University were made available under the IGSSS project. "This has hugely benefitted our agriculture as our crops are destroyed by flood every year. The situation was so bad earlier that many villagers started leaving paddy cultivation due to the flood. But now more and more farmers are going for the flood resilient varieties," Rajen Mili, a farmer in neighbouring Khabalu Morotpur village told DH.

The NGO also helped the farmers to take up duck and poultry rearing activities in order to manage the damage caused to the crops. "We helped the farmers to rear White Pekin ducks which gives 160 to 170 eggs after six months against 60 to 70 given by the normal ducks. They can also sell these ducks at Rs. 500-600 after 45 days. We also facilitated them to go for intra cropping, such as cultivation of potato and pumpkin together in the same field. These activities helped them increase their income," said Montu Saikia, who looks after the agriculture projects of IGSSS.

Assistance to women

Women in the villages were helped to form self-help-groups (SHG) and take up weaving more systematically with the yarn and training provided by the government agencies like NABARD. "We have also tied up with a private agency, which procures the products directly from the weavers. So they dont have to worry about markets," said Bonani Das of IGSSS. "Women are also into rearing of high yeilding ducks and poultry," she said.

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(Published 03 August 2020, 14:04 IST)

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