Orissa Super Cyclone Situation Report 9

Current Situation
The official death toll as of 2 December 1999 is 9885. There has been substantial progress in restoring rail and road links with the affected areas. All short distance passenger and goods trains have been restored. The long distance trains will be normalised soon. Rahama-Paradip section (23Kilometers), that was not restored for long time is also now open. Local telephone lines are reported to be normal except in Jajpur town, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Paradip.

The damages caused due to the cyclone are given below:

Government Actions

The High-powered Taskforce, in its recent meeting, decided to establish the Orissa Cyclone Reconstruction Authority, for which the details are being worked out. The role of this Authority is still to be determined.

Considering improvements in the availability of food, the number of free kitchens run by various organisations have come down from 1434 to 773. These kitchens are open in Puri, Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Cuttack, and Jagatisinghpur districts for 450,000 people. Based on the request of the State Government, the Central Government has allocated 96,000 tonnes of rice upto March 2000 and another 2000 tonnes of rice has been allocated to NGOs and Public Sector Undertakings for running community kitchens. 50,000 tonnes of wheat has been allocated to the State Government for conversion into flour and distribution in the coastal districts through Government outlets. A request from the state Government for distribution of wheat in the affected areas is under consideration by the Central Government.

As per official reports, there is adequate stock of medicines, including ORS, IV fluids, Halogen tablets and bleaching powder in the state. The Ministry of Health is supplying Medicines and medical stores as per the requirements of the state Government. However, 97934 diarrhoeal cases and 162,300 minor ailments have been reported. Teams of experts from the Central Government are working in the affected areas to control the outbreak of epidemics.

All the 39,985 tubewells, damaged due to the cyclone, have been repaired and disinfected.48,291 additional tubewells have also been disinfected as preventive measure. 66 out of 121 affected water supply schemes have been restored. Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research and Defence Research Development Organisation have installed 15 water treatment plants in the villages of Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Khurda districts, providing about 215,000 litres of water. Normal water supply has been restored in all the urban areas.

Restoring power in the affected areas is becoming difficult due to massive damages to the transmission lines and towers. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources has finalised a programme for setting up solar lanterns, streetlights etc in the affected areas. Position regarding restoration of power supply in other areas is: Puri-85%, Khurda-94%, Bhubaneshwar-63%, Cuttack-65%, Paradip-40% and Kendrapara-4%.

A team of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, ICAR and National Seeds Corporation visited the State during 9-11 November 1999 to assess the crop prospects and identify the problem areas. The problem of salinity is not reported to be significant in most of the affected areas. 11620 MT of seeds of paddy, wheat, pulses, oilseeds and horticultural crops have been despatched. More seeds are being arranged. The State Govt. has placed orders for 2500 MT of cattle feed so for, out of which 1000 MT have been received and supplied. National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has supplied veterinary drugs, vaccines and cattle feed in the affected areas. NDDB is also reactivating milk cooperatives.

Role of United Nations

The UN House in Bhubaneshwar facilitated a meeting of the representatives of NGOs, bilaterals and the state Government on 19 November to discuss the rehabilitation and reconstruction strategies. The UNDMT in Delhi provided concept notes on the possible areas of intervention by UN Agencies under food for work, shelter, drinking water, health, agriculture, etc. Three working groups on Livelihood, Habitat and Infrastructure have been constituted. These working groups would develop medium and long-term strategies and meet again on 11 December in Bhubaneshwar to finalise the plans. The UNDMT would also be represented in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the UN-NGO meeting held on 29 November discussed a matrix circulated by UNDMT on the areas of involvement of UN Agencies, and the NGOs in Orissa. The NGOs have agreed to identify areas of mutual cooperation. This mapping exercise would be improved by incorporating inputs from a mapping exercise being undertaken by the UN House in Bhubaneshwar.

FAO had fielded mission to Orissa to identify the rehabilitation and reconstruction requirements. The Mission, among other things, has identified the immediate requirement of seeds in Orissa. This list has been shared with the Ministry of Agriculture. Based on the prioritisation of the items in the list by the Ministry of Agriculture and the actions already taken by the Ministry, the UN Agencies would explore the possibilities of supplying seeds in Orissa.

The facilities in the UN House in Bhubaneshwar have been strengthened from 1 December by opening a new building with necessary office equipment. The UN Agencies working in Orissa would be using this facility. In the meeting with NGOs on 29 November, UNDMT encouraged the NGOs to interact with the staff in the UN House and make use of the data base and other information available in the UN House.

UNDMT has also recruited 4 National UN Volunteers. These UNVs, after their orientation training, would to be placed in the 4 worst affected district administrations to help the district collectors in monitoring the flow of relief and rehabilitation resources and to coordinate the activities.

The combined earmarking of funds by the UN Agencies for the Orissa State has gone up to US$ 6.7 million. Additional resources are being augmented to meet the rehabilitation and reconstruction needs by the UN System, through accelerating the existing programmes. The latest list of items that has already been despatched and that in pipeline is attached.