Floodwaters Maroon Millions in Bangladesh & Northeastern India
Edited by Duane Heath
Dhaka, Bangladesh - The Jamuna River burst its banks and surged through villages, drowning sleeping residents in northern Bangladesh, while villagers in northeastern India were buried alive in their homes, raising the region's monsoon death toll to 349, officials said on Thursday.
The annual flooding - fed by melting snow and torrential rains - also left millions in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan stranded as the waters washed away homes, roads, crops and telephone lines.
In India, where the bulk of the deaths have occurred, 10 people died on Thursday in Gauhati, the capital of northeastern Assam state, when heavy rain caved in hilltop houses in four neighbourhoods.
At least 5.5 million people have been driven from their homes or marooned across Assam in the past 10 days, said state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. He said 3 000 villages were under water and the overflowing Brahmaputra River had also driven thousands from their homes in Gauhati.
The floods have engulfed 25 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, leaving nearly five million people stranded and 68 dead since late last month, officials said.
Some 10 000 villagers were washed out of their flimsy homes as the Jamuna surged through its mud embankment in Bangladesh's Bogra district as people slept early on Wednesday, relief officials said.
Four children and a woman were swept to their deaths there.
"The flood waters came roaring into our house and we had little time to flee," Parveen Aktar, a woman in Dhunat village who lost two young children, was quoted as saying by Dhaka's Daily Star newspaper.
"I held them tight, but they were swept away," Aktar said.
Dhaka's Ittefaq newspaper reported that the breach left at least 100 people missing and damaged about 3 000 mud-and-straw houses.
At least eight more people, mostly children, drowned on Wednesday in two other northern districts, Sirajganj and Jamalpur, United News of Bangladesh said.
Rivers surrounding the capital swelled further on Thursday, flooding some low-lying areas.
There have been 207 reported deaths in India, 69 in Nepal and five in Pakistan.
The deaths have come from landslides, building collapses, drowning, electrocution and waterborne disease such as diarrhoea caused by drinking polluted water that has inundated wells.
In the town of Laher Sarai in India's eastern Bihar state, water from the Bagmati River flooded a jail in Laher Sarai town three days ago, forcing authorities to move prisoners from cells on the ground floor.
"Some prisoners seem to have taken advantage of this and escaped," said Rajeev Kumar, the top administrator of Darbhanga district, where Laher Sarai is located.
Kumar said a head count on Wednesday revealed that 34 prisoners were missing. There were 600 prisoners in the jail before the flooding occurred, he said.
---------------------------------
Article provided to Humanity Check by Montreal Muslim News Network (http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net) - an excellent source of Muslim World news, opinion and analysis.
To subcribe directly to Montreal Muslim News Network news bulletins, visit: http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/subscribe
---------------------------------
RELIEF:
Christian Aid Partners Respond
to Floods in South Asia
Posted on Reuters Foundation's Alert.net web site (http://www.alertnet.org)
by Christian Aid-UK
July 15, 2004
Article available on line at: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/10899060676.htm
Christian Aid - UK Website: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/bangkok
Christian Aid partners are launching an emergency response to the recent floods devastating both eastern India and north and central Bangladesh.
The Sylhet division in northern Bangladesh is one of the worst affected regions and has been hit by torrential rain and swollen rivers. At the time of writing the rains had stopped and floods were slowly receding, but the suffering of those affected still continues.
Christian Aid partner Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB) reports that health facilities and other vital services are under extreme pressure. Communications with several surrounding districts have been lost and around 2,000 people are said to be sheltering in centres established by the local authority.
Outside the cities, 12 people have died and rice crops have been destroyed. River erosion has been severe and most wells, roads, houses and schools are underwater. Around 70 local relief centres are open but 2,500,000 people are said to be marooned.
Immediate concerns include scarcity of clean drinking water and sanitation problems, which could cause an outbreak of disease.
FIVDB is delivering food to 6,000 marooned families and planning to help 10,000 farming families with rice and vegetable seeds so that they can begin to grow food again as soon as floods recede. It will also help 1,000 families to rebuild their homes.
Actions by Churches Together (ACT) a network of agencies that work together during emergencies, includes our partners Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh and Church of Bangladesh, will be meeting at the end of this week to plan a response.
In India the worst affected states are Assam and Bihar. In Assam, the Brahmaputra river has been flowing above the danger level and threatens to burst its banks, and at least one other major river has flooded. 23 out of 28 districts have widespread damage. Christian Aid partner Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) reports 16 dead, and 2.5 million affected people in 2,794 villages.
More than 14,320 houses, most of which were built of mud and thatch, have been washed away, and about 25,000 are damaged. Around 400,000 hectares of crops have been lost and roads, communications, electricity supplies and water pumps are severely affected.
CASA is feeding 5,000 affected families in 42 villages in two of the worst affected districts of Assam. It works through churches and other local partners and has stocks of emergency supplies ready around the country so it has been able to launch a response at short notice. A more comprehensive flood relief programme, including provision of shelter materials, clothing, blankets and other essential items is planned
---------------------------------
Further Background:
Visit Reuters Alert.net's resource page on Bangladesh and the current South Asia flood emergency at:
http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/countryprofiles/152518.htm
---------------------------------
Comment, Humanity Check:
LET'S GET OUR PRIORITIES RIGHT:
RELIEVE HUMAN SUFFERING FIRST
SEND POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL & SECURITY OBSESSIONS TO THE REAR,
WHERE THEY BELONG
A quick look at Reuters' Asia emergency briefing page (http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/countryprofiles/asia.htm) should confirm anyone that millions of people are currently starving and bleeding to death all over Asia.
Natural disasters, plagues etc. are inflicting far more and far worse suffering, than are "terrorism" or even state repression -- though war and government both have despiccable records for making the suffering from natural disasters worse and dragging it out longer than necessary.
And this reckoning doesn't even factor in simultaneous emergencies engulfing Africa (http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/countryprofiles/africa.htm), the Americas (http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/countryprofiles/americas.htm) and the Middle East (http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/countryprofiles/middleeast.htm).
Clearly the solution is to flood the Developing World with the latest ammunition and military communications gear.
But: Is it only government officials and professional war profiteers whose moral priorities are diverted? What about us, moralizing indignantly from the sidelines? Are we really any cleaner?
How is it that, in the face of all this immediate human suffering and peril, our discussions, news, listserves, activist meetings, etc. are almost wholly consumed with political maneuvering and sectarian debate, and almost devoid of urgent bulletins about relief from famine, plague and flood?
The answer strikes me as self evident: Individual pride is seduced, stroked and sustained by political debate -- because these activities feed our view of ourselves as "weighty thinkers". Perhaps (we fantasize) we might somehow even be instrumental in re-directing the affairs of Humanity.
When pitted against the heady satisfaction of incisive poltical, ethical and religious polemics, a task like emptying buckets of blood and vomit from a refugee emergency clinic, or parcelling out pitifully inadequate rations to demoralized, illiterate families at some ugly and desolate relief station, is hard pressed to attract and sustain our interest.
What does this tell us about our moral condition, and about our fond sense of ourselves as spiritual, humanitarian people?
I believe it tells us that invidious pride largely shoulders in to displace compassion and moral action as priorities for most people. This distortion is deepened further in government and diplomacy -- arenas where fixations on "security," economic strategy and geopolitics are magnified, and where humanitarian relief emergencies take a distant back seat (if they are examined at all).
In spite of our best efforts, our priorities and values remain inverted. Unless and until we dramatically reverse this inversion, we will remain far from the path that God would have us follow.
I propose that we embrace a politics of compassion whose adherents both:
1) Focus their first attention and energy on human suffering and its relief, and
2) Only then move on to questions of ideology, economics and political power
May more people of conscience bear down more resolutely on this question when we pause to pray. Insha'Allah.
David L. Hoffman
July 15, 2004
---------------------------------
Humanity Check
Interfaith Peace and Reconciliation Project
The Humanity Check mailing list is a private, unaffiliated volunteer project. Mailings are selected which (God willing) address the need for Unity on the Planet, religious tolerance, justice and peace.
People from every faith tradition (or none) are welcome. Written contributions from every tradition (or none) are invited.
In particular, in view of the present historical situation, Humanity Check seeks (God willing) to reach across obsolete cultural barriers, to honor the spiritual and moral contributions of Islam to Humanity, and the deep desire of Muslims for a just and peaceful World.
If you receive Humanity Check mailings unsolicited, someone has identified you as likely to be interested in these materials.
TO SUBSCRIBE:
If you wish to receive Humanity Check mailings on an ongoing
basis, please reply to this Email, and include the word "Subscribe" in the
Subject Line of your reply.
DONATIONS are WELCOME and NEEDED:
I believe Humanity Check accomplishes unique work that deserves support. This work requires time and money. It is difficult to sustain. Therefore I request that readers who can donate something to support the work. Donation is not a condition of subscribing. Funds donated will be applied either to operating costs or to a reasonable stipend to support my work as Coordinator. I will be happy to provide clear information to any donor or potential donor about how donated funds are used. This is not an incorporated or tax-exempt project. Therefore donations will not be tax deductible.
-- David L. Hoffman, Coordinator
Please make any donations by check, payable to Humanity Check,
Mail donations to:
Humanity Check
No. 357, 122 Calistoga Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95409
U.S.A.
TO UNSubscribe: If you wish to discontinue Humanity Check mailings, simply reply to this Email, and include the word "UNSubscribe" in the
Subject Line of your reply.
Al Salaam Alaikum. Shalom. Namaste. Peace.
David L. Hoffman, Coordinator
Humanity Check
Interfaith peace and reconciliation project
No. 357, 122 Calistoga Road
Santa Rosa, CA 95409
(707) 538-8495
e-mail: humanitycheck@earthlink.net
Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~humanitycheck
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------