RF_DM-3_RAI-2_SUDHA.pdf

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extracted text: R F / DN-31 /?

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Report on Visit to Flood - 9th Affected Raichur District and 10th October 2009

The general situation was that about 210 people died during the floods and about 40
villages were totally devastated. A lot of attention (media, politicians, support) was
flowing to a few villages which are near Raichur Township. But villages which are far
away have not been visited by any significant persons.
Mr. Premdas visited villages which were about 70-80 kms from Raichur town, coming
under two talukas - viz. Manvi and Sindhanur. The Jagrutha Mahila Sanghatan (JMS) is
working in this area. The villages visited were the following:
• Pothnal (Manvi tq)
• Kharabdinni (Manvi tq)
• Devipur - manvi tq (hightly affected - many Dalit families have lost grains,
vessels)
• Jagirpannur manvi tq (highly affected- Dalit families have lost grains, cows,
clothes)- no relief, no survey by government officials, people had hardly grains
left with them. The Jo war which they managed to save had sprouted.
• Huligunchi - Opp Jagir pannur village on the river which joins Tungabhadra
village. This village is completely devastated. Around 500 people have pitched
their tents on the roads. Govt has started cooking shelters here, community-wise
• Valkamdinni, Dumthi villages (sindhanur taluka) were visited by Snehalata
1)31 Dalit families from Jagirpannur - a badly affected village, was supported with 25
kgs of rice and 2 kgs of toor dal - from donations raised by CHC.
2) In the aftermath of the floods, reports of people falling ill and possibility of vectorborne diseases was increasing. Cleaning up of the flood affected areas (around's people's
houses and fields) had begun. Bleaching powder was supplied to the villages. The JMS
karayakarthas have been following up on this. The Jan Arogya Andolana Karnataka team
in Raichur had engaged the District Health Officer (DHO) and Zilla Parishad (ZP) CEO
on adequate stock and supply of halogen tablets and sanitisation.
3) Message was spread through women's self help group members on the use of halgen
tablets for water purification. Though the Government is supplying halogen tablets, these
were not enough for proper purification. The women were trained on the use of these
tablets for effective purification, and had been told to meet the local administration &
health officials to ask for adequate supplies per household.

4) The women's self help group members had begun to contact the Sub-Centres and
Primary Health Centres (PHC), supported by the Jana Aarogya Andolana-Karnataka to
report illnesses and seek treatment.
5) In Pothanal meeting with two organisations - JMS and Vimukti were held whod
formed a joint co-ordination committee (Nerehavali Spandana Samiti - flood relief
committee) for joint efforts and to facilitate mutual exchange of resources and
information.

6) A community-based survey of 25 villages was carried out in association with the self
help group members in Manavi and Sindhanoor taluks of Raichur to identify those
affected. Those identified included 152 severely affected, 154 partially affected. What
was found was that in each of the affected villages the most vulnerable (dalits, widows,
households headed by the elderly in cases where young ones have died) were facing a
crisis of food and any other support, apart from the psycho-social needs. JMS would be
reaching out to these most vulnerable families.

7) JMS office was flooded and they lost materials worth upto 1.5 lakhs. In addition, the
women's groups who were making terracotta, lost materials of worth nearly 80,000
rupees which they had kept ready to take to Delhi after two weeks. The group of women
who were preparing neem fertiliser had a stock of 24 tonnes of prepared fertiliser, half of
which (worth 3 lakhs) is estimated to be spoiled and of the 15 tonnes of the raw
materials (neem seeds) about 8 tonnes (worth 1.5 lakhs) which was in water is rotten and
lost. The total loss comes to about 7 lakhs.
- Report by Mr. E. Premdas, CHC

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