The affected are now facing an acute shortage of potable drinking water even as the spectre of disease looms large

People affected by the floods in the Mahanadi basin in Odisha have been marooned by floodwaters. They are now facing an acute shortage of potable drinking water even as the spectre of diseases looms large.

The crisis is most severe in Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Cuttack districts. 

Abhaya Jena of Dihabalarampur village in Kendrapara district told this reporter that finding clean drinking water was the biggest problem at the moment. “We are marooned. The only way to escape is on one of the rescue boats that shuttle between the village and the main road,” Jena said. 

Bhagabat Behera of Singhagaon in Kendrapara district collected water from a submerged tube well as he talked.

“We lost everything. Now, we need drinking water to save our lives. I am collecting water from a partly submerged tube well with great difficulty as there is no other source of drinking water,” Behera said.

Amarbar Biswal, a social worker of Kendrapara said hundreds of flood-hit people were faced with the dilemma of drinking contaminated water, thus putting them at the risk of water-borne diseases.

“Lack of clean water is a major concern which leads to heightened risk of disease,” he added.

Villagers who had fled to schools, cyclone shelters, river embankments and other higher ground to save their lives were now worried over the non-availability of safe drinking water. 

“They are the rural poor who have lost their homes, farms, livestock and belongings. Now they are in critical need of food and clean water,” Biswal said.  

So far, 1,757 villages in 64 blocks of 12 districts have been affected by the floods. People in 60 wards of 10 municipalities are still surrounded by floodwaters. Some 425 villages are completely water-logged. A total of 250,000 people are stuck inside places surrounded by water.

PK Jena, special relief commissioner of the Government of Odisha, said 467,321 people had been affected by the floods as of August 18.

He added that the administration was taking all necessary steps to provide relief to affected people.

“Around 158 temporary kitchens have been made for the affected people and about 60,000 people are being provided with cooked food. Health department and other officials have been providing drinking water and halogen tablets and medicines to the affected,” Jena said.

He also noted that the rural water and sanitation department had been instructed to provide drinking water through water tanks in the flood-hit areas. 

Water Resources Engineer-in-Chief Bijay Kumar Mishra said the water level in the Hirakud reservoir was 624.69 feet at 9 am August 18.

The dam was receiving 4.40 lakh cusecs of water from upstream areas and discharging 6.74 lakh cusecs through 40 sluice gates. The discharge at Khairmal was 8.5 lakh cusecs, 8.8 lakh cusecs at Barmul and 10.10 lakh cusecs at Mundali.

“It will reduce further till the water released from the dam reaches Mundali August 18 night. Efforts are being made to control the outflow and reduce it to around 8 lakh cusecs,” Mishra said.

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