Dhurmus Suntali Foundation is carrying out relief distribution and medical services in the flood-affected districts in the Tarai with the help of volunteers and health officials.

Sitaram Kattel, the foundation’s co-founder, said they reached the flood-hit communities in Dhanusha, Sunsari, Mahottari, Rautahat, Morang and Jhapa in the last two days with the relief supplies they had collected.

“We came across many people who were suffering from diarrhoea and headache. We have a doctor in our team who offered them basic treatment, but there is still a lot to be done to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases in the flood-affected areas,” Kattel said, adding that the team had administered basic treatment to around 300 people until Tuesday.

Without enough food, clean drinking water and shelter, many flood displaced people are at high risk of contracting various diseases. Relief works from the government side so far has been slow.

“Besides food, clothes and shelter, the flood victims are also in a dire need of essential medicines and health workers. People are surviving on a diet of beaten rice, biscuits and instant noodles. Help is wanting,” Kattel said.  

Drinking water scarcity in Saptari

SAPTARI: Twenty-thousand families in Saptari do not have drinkable water sources after murky floodwaters swamped their villages. Hand pumps and wells are under water since Friday. People are falling sick after drinking polluted water, said Sanjanadevi Mukhiya, one flood survivor in Kusaha village. Many villagers said they were struggling for the basic needs of food, water and shelter. Flood has severely affected Kusaha, Banarjhula, Rampura, Tikuliya and Basarain villages in the district. Relief has not reached thousands of victims. Chief District Officer Bhagirath Pandey on Tuesday said they were trying hard to distribute relief in all flood-hit areas at the earliest.

In Bara, more than two dozen flood affected families at a Dalit settlement in Kalaiya are surviving on dried foods for the last five days. Newaji Miya, one of the displaced men, said dalmoth, bitten rice and biscuits provided by NGOs and local donors were keeping them alive.

Basudev Paswan, another flood survivor, said there was not enough food for his family and he had been borrowing from his neighbours to feed his children.

Elsewhere in the district,  Jamuni, Tiyar, Bangari, Aduwa, Dudhaura, Pasaha, Lalbakaiya and Thalaiya streams have displaced hundreds of people.