"Me and the goat will be saved from the flood," responds four-year-old Chowki, when asked to describe the purpose of the platform being constructed in his village Bhawanipur in Bihar.

Lessons learned from Indian disaster

Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) Allocated: CHF 100,000

The Federation's mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers

Appeal Target: CHF 3,400,000 (USD 2,446,214 or EUR 2,336,657)
Period covered: July - Sept, 2003
The Federation's mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and its millions of volunteers are active in over 180 countries. For more information: www.ifrc.org

In Brief

Appeal coverage: 48.3 %; See attached Contributions List for details1.

Outstanding needs: CHF 2,201,897 (1,557,211 USD / 1,432,128 EUR)

Related Emergency or Annual Appeals: N/A

Appeal No. 16/2003;
Appeal launched on 20 June 2003 for CHF 1,292,000( USD 972,835 or EUR 833,259) for 6 months for 75,000 beneficiaries (15,000 families); given the low donor response to date, the operational budget is being revised to CHF 174,000, and the operational time-frame shortened.

Disaster Relief Emergency Funds (DREF) allocated: CHF 100,000 Period covered: 19 July - 28 August 2003

The water table in most of this north-western Indian state has fallen by 35 metres from its normal level and people can no longer depend on ground water. Water from the government-laid network of water pipelines is rarely used for drinking as rusty metal dust and the taste of the water make it unfit for consumption.

Over the past year, four out of every five people in the state who received passports were illiterate or semi-literate farmers, New Delhi Television (NDTV) reported.

"There is no water and we cannot farm. I am going to Saudi Arabia to work," said Ramulu, a farmer from Nizamabad district.

So far, Andhra Pradesh's biggest export

Weather officials said isolated monsoon rains occurred in parts of five northeastern states -- Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh -- and warned of heavy showers in the next 48 hours.

"Yes, we have had the first monsoon showers in the northeast," said S.K. Subramanium, deputy director