Responding to Flooding in Bihar, India

Bipul Borah had been managing CRS' monsoon relief effort in Bihar, India, and going without a proper night's sleep for weeks. Bihar is one of the areas most devastated by the floods, and a state already plagued by malnutrition. When Bipul walked back into our Delhi office in "Indiana Jones" style, he described just what was entailed in launching the flood emergency relief effort, and in waist-high waters, no less. Red-eyed but animated, he shares his thoughts.

The First Days and Weeks

The flood started on the 25th [of July] and I was there on the 26th; no one was there. We had just one staff in the capital city and three staff in the field and we needed to reposition people right away.

Immediately I began meeting with partners. Literally into the middle of the night we had discussions about what to do and how to go about this relief effort. At first, we had no time for sleep and the demands were enormous. Our partner was confused about what to do — reaching the people was difficult in those first few days, even for the government. Roads were cut off and people didn't have enough to eat. The Indian government was doing air drops, but it was not enough.

Finally, we all slept in the dormitory of the partner office, sharing rooms. The Indian government had generously offered us office space, but it made more sense to stay with our partner.

Level of Suffering

In the initial days of assessments, when our staff would visit areas to find out about needs, people would come looking for something — something to eat. They were hungry. For cover they were using their own clothes, which were getting soaked. They were suffering a lot.

We knew that 50 percent of the children are malnourished in the state. With the floods, the situation would only get worse. So we decided to give high-protein biscuits to mothers and children. CRS purchased 170 metric tons of biscuits right away that were shipped from Kolkata and nearby states. This amount was enough to provide almost 400,000 women and children with food for 10 days. This was in addition to our emergency relief distribution of tarps and other essential materials.

I spent most of my time coordinating logistics — who is doing what. With so many people trying to carry out efforts, we wanted coordination to trickle down to village levels. We advocated for the government to map out who is doing what so that we were not duplicating efforts in certain areas; and to ensure more comprehensive coverage. We came up with a map, which helped us in deciding where to target various efforts.

Reaching People With Distributions

Distributions are extremely difficult because you have to carry them by boat, manually or by road. The government has only three or four mechanized boats. The people have the country boats — rowed manually [no motor] — that fit five or six people. These boats are the only way to travel and communicate between villages. You can imagine how difficult it is to transport massive goods inland on these small boats, which are rowed by hand.

For all of our distributions we ask for the help of police. The reason why is that sometimes you have to pass through unaffected villages to reach the affected areas, and these communities … might demand food. At that time, you need extra security to control the transportation of relief items to ensure they reach the people who need them most.

Tomorrow we are going to reach 1,000 families. We average the distribution amounts to be enough for six people per family. In this distribution tomorrow, families will receive rice flakes, chickpeas, salt, groundnuts and biscuits.

A lot of what we are giving is ready to eat. People don't have stoves or means for cooking. They also need purification tablets for clean drinking water. So, we give 50 tablets per family, with health messages on how to use them.

Logistical Nightmares

Logistics is a nightmare — transporting the distribution. One whole day our truck was standing, just stuck in the road. Transportation, even when roads are good, just takes a lot of time. Many people are living on the roadside, so you have little space to move.

The government was helpful with distributions because you have to pay intrastate taxes. If you can show a letter from the government, the taxes for transporting these many relief materials are void, which is a great relief for us.

Our staff was walking in knee-deep water for all tasks, even the most mundane but essential — helping partners to get our funds. With using wire transfers, we had to help banks understand how this works. These are small things, but they take so much time.

Looking Ahead

The scale of people affected in Bihar is 14 million. It is difficult. In this state, 90 percent of the people live in the rural villages. Many of the families have mud houses, so when they go back they have to clean their houses; they will need cleaning materials and shelter materials. That's why we are giving 18-by-12 foot tarps for transitional shelter.

I just have to say that donations make a lot of difference. Many people in many states are living below $2 a day; so you can imagine how $20 can give some kind of dignity: in bringing help in a dignified way, in living in a dignified way.

If something is happening in one corner of the world, we should be with those affected. Solidarity is one of these things. It makes a lot of difference.

Bipul Borah is CRS India's disaster management coordinator. In addition to emergencies, Bipul has worked in the areas of microfinance and long-term development.