In September 2020, floods in rivers caused a devastating situation in the State, badly affecting 1.4 Million people in 3256 villages of 896 GPs in 112 Blocks of 20 districts of Odisha. Bari Block of Jajpur district was the worst affected geography in the state. In Bari block, more than 10000 houses got damaged, 75737 hectares of farmland in 13 of the 29 flood-affected GPs got submerged and sand was deposited by the flood water.

The COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent floods badly impacted the lives and livelihood of the people as well as pushed millions of people into food and health insecurity.

The ground situation was extremely damaging for the affected population, especially the small and marginal farmers, returnee migrants, daily wagers, and informal workers, and given this unprecedented disaster, there was an urgent need to ensure food security, maintain good health and restore livelihood in the flood-marooned villages.

Resources of water – hand pumps, dug wells, and ponds and tanks were contaminated by flood water; drinking water for people was the need of the hour.  There was every possibility of waterborne diseases on the setting due to water contamination; villages became the breeding grounds for mosquitoes to spread malaria and dengue.

The floods became more challenging adding miseries to the lives of a population whose worlds had already been shattered by the Covid lockdown and who were already struggling for a normal life and survival. The worst hit were the extra-vulnerable households including agri-allied workers, small and marginal farmers, sharecroppers, petty vegetable shop owners, and migrants’ laborers.

The first-time entrepreneurs, mostly the migrant workers, who had taken agriculture as an alternative to migration lost their farming in this flood. The small and marginal farmers who lost their harvests and crops had to struggle for their food and daily needs. The flood situation further aggravated the COVID-19 crisis posing a serious threat to the survival of vulnerable households including the poorest of the poor families, the ST and SC communities, single women households, and households with members physically challenged – because of no cash in hand and no work.

Relief Measures

CYSD set up Flood Relief Operation Nodes in three different villages of Bari block (Bari village, Ratnagiri village and Indupur village), which were fully managed by the National Youth Project Volunteers. The coordination work of relief distribution (dry ration), sanitation & disinfection drive and running of health check-up camps on day to day basis were coordinated by the relief Nodes.

Sanitation and Disinfection Drive

Sanitation and Disinfection drive was undertaken in 32 villages engaging around 64 lead volunteers in 19 Panchayats of Bari Block. The sanitation drive was carried out by deploying 900 local youth volunteers. The drive included steps like cleaning of internal village connecting roads and lanes, and disinfection using bleaching powder with the support of local youth and SHG members. A total of 4 fully-damaged thatched houses were repaired by the volunteers. A total of 15 ponds, 26 dug tube wells, and 15 water sources were fully disinfected administering bleaching powder. Also, Halogen tablets were distributed to 450 needy families.

The sanitation and disinfection drive was followed by the distribution of cooked food amongst the participating volunteers and around 10,000 needy people from 32 villages.

Health Check-up Camp

Following the sanitation and disinfection drive, CYSD organized 12 health check-up camps in Bari Block with the active collaboration with Humanitarian Aid International and Amrut Global network in which around 6050 people could check up their health and got treatment. Cotton masks and sanitary napkins were distributed to all needy patients, adolescent girls, and women of reproductive age groups.

The patients were treated for upper respiratory tract infection, muscular-skeletal disorder, Gastrointestinal disorder, skin infection in general, worm infestation, suspected for COVID-19, geriatric disorders, mentally disorder cases, dental illness, eye and ear infection. Mostly, patients were treated for pandemic flu with other MCD, Hypertension, Diabetes and CVD. Around 24 local volunteers supported the health check-up team for smooth functioning of the camp following the COVID guidelines.

Livelihoods Restoration

There was a need to restore the livelihoods of people for ensuring the immediate economic revival of the households. Most of these vulnerable households depend on farming and vegetable cultivation which was lost due to the floods. The loss of livelihood and the resultant wage-loss resulted in food and nutrition insecurity for the poor vulnerable families. They were filled with anxiety and fear about the uncertainty which was looming large.

As many as 1468 vulnerable farmers were selected from the most affected villages of 7 Gram Panchayats of the Block taking the local community and the Panchayati Ral Institutions into confidence. They were supported with high-quality vegetable seeds and plant medicine/ manure as a start-up kit (inclusive of plant medicines) for their livelihoods restoration. Soil preparation and crop vigilance was done by the project participants who were sensitised on the advanced-cultivating methods to get good yield, aggregated and linked with the market through the response team. The seed support helped the farmers recover their lost economy within 2-3 months by cultivating vegetables. Farmers were provided with information about the extended market avenues and some farmers were even linked with the ‘Mo Bagicha’ scheme of the government.