Goalpara, Assam:
It has been more than a fortnight since floods in Meghalaya and Assam claimed over 100 lives, but what rules the scenes in flood-hit remote villages in only sorrow and despair and very little government help. Salakpara village in Goalpara in Assam have lost almost 80 per cent of their land to the flood fury. Many victims are homeless without livelihood; rebuilding lives would be more challenging then saving it.
For 40-year-old Dhanan Rabha, coping with floods has been an annual battle. But this time, it was different. He lost his pregnant wife and a two-year-old toddler. All that is left for him and his little daughter are broken bamboo pillars and chunks of mud of what was once his home.
Over five lakh people have been displaced due to the floods in Meghalaya and Assam. On September 22, unprecedented heavy rain lashed Meghalaya and Assam and within a span of hours, hundreds of villages were marooned. A cloudburst made it worse, causing massive landslides in the Garo hills of Meghalaya and the mudslides then came crashing down to hit the worst-affected Goalpara district in the plains.
"The Centre is not taking the Assam floods as seriously as the J&K floods. For Assam, floods is an annual affair. It is strange that we are not getting support," said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Many villages in Assam have been completely washed away. 90 per cent of the embankments in Assam are in desperate need of repair and those hit by the floods are struggling to rebuild their lives, with little or no help from the administration. Many villagers have somehow managed to rebuild houses from the support of nearby villagers, friends and community.
"We somehow managed to rebuild our houses from the help of our nearby villager friends. They have given us bamboo, tarpuline, tin, straw to build our houses. There is still no electricity. We never got any relief from the government except from private NGOs that came here," said Phaniram Boro, a local.
The fury of the Assam-Meghalaya border floods has shaken the faith of thousands. People are shattered and crestfallen only to gather and regroup each time. Surely they need a lot more help and support from all quarters to cope with this continuous distress.