INDIA and BANGLEDESH (October 4, 2000)
-- CARE is moving massive amounts of relief supplies to victims in
areas of India and Bangladesh experiencing their worst flooding in decades.
CARE is positioned to provide a strong emergency response because of its
extensive self-help programs in both nations.
Unrelenting monsoon rains have pounded
both countries during the past three weeks, submerging large areas and
affecting 20 million people. More than 1,000 people have been killed. Flooding
has been most severe in the Indian state of West Bengal and several districts
in southwest Bangladesh, destroying tens of thousands of homes and ruining
more than 250,000 acres of crops.
"People have lost not just their place to live but their means of making a living," said CARE Bangladesh Director Steve Wallace. "Looking forward, once water levels go down and the emergency is over, CARE will keep helping survivors. CARE will help them rebuild roads and destroyed housing, and to replant damaged crops. This kind of assistance helps people do more than get back on their feet. It helps them regain their ability to support themselves."
CARE is working through two local organizations to distribute emergency food to approximately 40,000 families in the poorest of the flooded areas in Bangladesh.
In India, CARE's assistance includes providing more than 2,000 tons of food, and medicine to 400,000 people in two of the hardest-hit districts in West Bengal: Murshidabad and Birbhum.
"Many people who survived the floods are now weak from diarrhea because most of the water is not fit to drink," said Tom Alcedo, CARE director in India. The carcasses of cattle and other livestock have contaminated it."
CARE is distributing three packs of oral rehydration solution to 80,000 households to fight diarrhea. CARE also is providing lime and bleaching powder, and halogen tablets to clean up contaminated water.
In Bangladesh, the districts involved, Meherpur, Jhenidah, Jessore, and Chuadangaing, are located on relatively high ground, and had not experienced major flooding in more than 100 years. People were not prepared to cope when waters suddenly rose to above chest-high levels. Approximately 60 percent of the population had to be evacuated. CARE staff reports that 90 percent of the area's tube wells are under water, making hygiene and sanitation extremely difficult.
CARE is improving sanitation conditions by running two water treatment plants in the affected area, making contaminated water safe for drinking and bathing. In this way, CARE is helping to prevent serious epidemics of waterborne diseases such as cholera from breaking out," Wallace said.
CARE has been working in India since 1950 and began operating in Bangladesh in 1955. CARE's self-help programs include nutrition, agriculture, health care, education, urban development, micro-enterprise, and natural resources development.
For additional information, contact:
India: Tom Alcedo, (011) 9111-656-4059
In Bangladesh: Steve Wallace, (011) 880-2-8113185 and 8114208/09.
In Atlanta: Alina Labrada, 404-979-9383; labrada@care.org.