Water everywhere not a drop to drink

KAKHADI (Cuttack): Saraswati Rout joins the rush of men and women wading through kneedeep water towards the boat carrying relief and medicine supplies at Kabatbarai village under Kakhadi gram panchayat of Tangi-Choudwar block.While the crowd puts forth its demand for supplies, she seeks out the doctor in the relief team to request for halazone tablets and water purifiers.It has been three days now that Saraswati, her husband Sanatan and two children have taken shelter on the terrace of a nearby pucca house spending days and nights under the open sky.“All the tube-wells and public taps installed under the Swajal Dhara scheme have been submerged.The only tube-well that has been spared gushes water that is not fit for consumption.We can manage with the rice grains and lentil stock for a few more days but drinking water has become the most pressing problem and dire necessity in the village,” she said.The village with more than 500 people, in fact, appears a speck in the middle of a seemingly unending watery expanse that has taken over the miles and miles of lush-green paddy and vegetable fields since Friday.As the motorboat pressed by ODRAF to undertake relief operations approaches the habitat, the houses come to the fore, half submerged with terraces and high verandahs teeming with the sheltered populace.Kakhadi gram panchayat is one of the worst affected pockets of Cuttack district.With three breaches affecting the region, the villages of Kakhadi, Kabatabarai, Gopinathpur, Mahalpada and Bidyadharpur are almost submerged by the surging waters of the Mahanadi.Mahadev Muduli of Kakhadi said the flood ingress aggravated on Friday night following a breach on the embankment along the village.It was followed by two more breaches at Mangalasahi and Mohantysahi in quick succession.“More than 6,500 people of the panchayat and surrounding villages have been cut off from the main land and spending days on rooftops under open sky since Friday,” he said.At Kabatabarai, Bijay Pradhan attributed the flood more to lack of protection from the swell in the nullah of the Sapua river than the Mahanadi.“There is an urgent necessity of a protection wall in the nullah passing by the village,” he said.The villagers have, however, expressed satisfaction over the mobilisation of relief and essential supplies in the affected pockets.“More could have been done but essential items have reached the affected villages,” said Manoj Muduli of Kakhadi.Sub-Collector, Cuttack Sadar, Jyoti Prakash Das, who has been visiting the flood-ravaged pockets to directly monitor the relief operations, said efforts are on to provide essential items like polythene, dry food, candles, kerosene and water purifiers at all places in the quickest possible time.Along with ODRAF motorboats, country boats have also been deployed to carry the essential supplies to the villages, he said.However, when the water recedes in a couple of days, major problems would surface.The threat of disease outbreak looms large over the submerged areas.“The focus should be on sanitising and purifying drinking water sources on a war- footing to prevent outbreak of waterborne diseases.We have already started seeing people, especially children, with fever and other infections.Along with medicines, halazone tablets, bleaching powder and water purifiers are being provided to each and every family,” said Dr Kalyani Patnaik, in charge of Tangi Upgraded PHC who has been supervising medical aid in the affected pockets.