ChildFund responds to floods in India

Extreme flooding in India’s coastal state of Orissa has affected more than two million people in 19 districts, claiming at least 22 lives. As a result, thousands of families have lost their homes, crops and livelihoods.

ChildFund India works in three of the affected districts, and approximately 20,000 people have now been evacuated from low lying areas to safer places. ChildFund is also providing communities with emergency food assistance with support from the Indian government.

Agricultural lands in the area have been submerged in floodwaters, resulting in a high loss of Kharif crop (crops planted in the rainy season) in the area. Rice, millet, maize, soybeans, vegetables and other staples have been ruined. Fish ponds are also submerged, and many fishermen lost their fishing nets, which are key to their livelihoods.

In the short-term, ChildFund and its partners will work with the government’s relief management authority and district administrations to ensure distribution of relief services. In particular, ChildFund will focus its sanitation interventions, and distribute bleaching powder, carbolic acid and lime to ensure the sanitation of water sources in the affected areas.

ChildFund will also provide a one-month supply of supplementary food for children, pregnant and nursing mothers and elders in the project areas.

Over the long-term, ChildFund will distributed vegetable seeds to families for the winter planting season and ensure that school buildings and Early Childhood Centres are cleaned and prepared to receive students when schools reopen.

ChildFund will also be convening a consultative flood preparedness meeting with disaster management experts and community members. The goal is to help communities become better prepared and less vulnerable to future flooding.