Will India be able to recover from worst floods it has witnessed in a decade this year?

This year, India is facing its worst floods since 2007. More than a 1,000 people have died across the country due to floods. Assam, Bihar and UP are the worst affected states.

New Delhi, Sep 6: The stories of floods never make it to the headlines. Probably, they are too "common" and deaths of hundreds across the country due to floods are too "mundane" to "shock" us.

Only, when heavy rains drowns a big city like Mumbai, then only when the national media awakes from its slumber and report for a while about floods and waterlogging.

However, the reality is that floods have left many states paralysed. This year, since June, floods have created havoc--killing thousands, destroying thousands of acres of croplands and turning millions homeless across the country.

From Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, the plight of flood-affected people across India is eerily similar. Now, as flood situation in several states is stated to have improved, the country faces the mammoth task of rehabilitation of millions of people affected by swirling waters.

As per reports, this year, floods have killed more than a 1,000 people. Activists and officials working in flood-hit areas fear that the death toll could be much higher. More than 3.4 crore people across 280 districts have been affected by floods, this year.

Officials figure also indicate that over 3 lakh hectares of crops, mainly paddy, have been destroyed. Over 8 lakh homes, mostly mud-built units have been damaged or destroyed. An estimated 16,000 schools too have suffered damage.

The reason behind so much deaths and damage is because this year's monsoon floods were the worst since 2007.

Health workers on ground say that the immediate issue is to prevent the spread of diseases. "With floods come various water-borne diseases. Most of the flood-affected people are poor residing in rural areas. They have no access to health facilities. That makes the situation more frightening. Every year, more people die because of spread of diseases after floods, then during floods," said a health activist from Assam, where floods since June had killed at least 160 people.

Some of the common diseases that strike flood-hit people are typhoid, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A, malaria, dengue and yellow fever, to name a few. The health activist added that every year floods visit Assam and every year the government agencies fail to help the affected people.

"This is true for other flood-hit states too. India simply doesn't have proper policies and measures to deal with floods. Devastation associated with floods could have been reduced if we have had proper warning system and rescue and rehabilitation measures," rued an official from Bihar engaged in rescuing flood-hit people. At least 514 people have died in Bihar floods.

OneIndia News