Another disaster unfolding in cyclone-hit Sundarbans

By Arun Anand, Pathar Pratima (West Bengal), June 28 : Almost a month after the devastating cyclone Aila hit the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest abutting the Bay of Bengal, another disaster is waiting to happen: thousands of residents are living in several island villages without food, water and basic hygiene.

The cyclone tore through 13 of the state's 19 districts of this eastern Indian state May 25-26, leaving a trail of destruction with houses levelled, trees uprooted, power cables snapped and 138 lives lost.

'Thousands of residents are living in relief camps in inhuman conditions waiting helplessly. There is an epidemic waiting to break out,' Gopal Pramanik, president of the Sunderbans Social Development Centre (SDC), told a visiting IANS correspondent.

Pramanik, who has been working in this area as a volunteer for about two decades, said: 'Most of the villages have no power supply, making relief efforts even more difficult. The relief material has to be taken on boats as they are the only mode of transport available to reach most of the villages.'

In Inderpur village in South 24 Parganas district, about 120 households are dependent on a single tubewell for all daily needs after their sweet water ponds were ingressed by sea water.

'The situation is bad and it is getting worse. The threat of diarrhoea and cholera is looming large over this area due to lack of clean drinking water facilities,' said Sangeeta, a public health promoter.

Pramanik added: 'Almost every house in these islands had a fresh water pond in their backyard which was their lifeline. But most of these ponds have been contaminated with river water (which is salty in the Sundarbans), leading to acute shortage of fresh and clean water.'

In Sitarampur village in the same district, 555 families are struggling to get back to their normal lives as their farmlands have been destroyed with the saline water entering the fields.

The village was flooded as the embankment protecting the village caved in due to the impact of cyclone Aila. The embankment is yet to be repaired. People saved their lives by climbing on trees during the cyclone.

'We are living in a relief camp, our houses were destroyed. Our farms have also been contaminated by saline water. The water is still there. If it is not pumped out soon, it will not be possible to cultivate the land for the next three years as the salt will enter the lower layers of the land,' said a worried Podda Das who is living in the camp with her daughter and two grandchildren.

Bhaswar Banerjee, programme officer of Oxfam India and one who has been camping in cyclone-affected areas for the past month, told IANS: 'There are several cases of diarrhoea being reported in several villages in this area as local residents are forced to cook stored foodgrains which got contaminated when water entered their homes due to flooding.'

Lost livelihood is also forcing people to migrate to cities and nearby towns to work as daily wagers.

A resident of Sitarampur said: 'We have no food to eat, we cannot do farming as the fields are still flooded with saline water. The only option we have is to migrate to the city to work as labourers.'

Kartik Maiti, 36, a volunteer for relief operations, said, 'A large number of men have moved to the cities within and outside the state in search of livelihood. They have left behind their families, which are struggling to survive on their own.'

Thirty-year-old Usha Jena of Rakhaskhali village spends a large part of her day trying to get water and food from the relief camp and the local volunteers of humanitarian organisations to feed her two children.

'After the cyclone, my husband moved to Burdwan to work as a labourer in a rice mill as we cannot do any farming here. Our bamboo hut was damaged in the cyclone. It is yet to be repaired,' she said.

Sanjib Kumar Behera of Oxfam India said that nearly 800 of Rakhashkhali's 900 houses were destroyed in the cyclone.

(Arun Anand can be contacted at arun.anand@ians.in)