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Flood-hit story of Goripora in Kashmir’s Pulwama district

by Devendra Tak | @devendratak | Save the Children - India
Tuesday, 7 October 2014 04:22 GMT

Child-Friendly Space facilitator Farhat-ul-Amin knows exactly what are the children's needs at such a time. Photo: Devendra Tak/Save the Children

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* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The irony is hard-hitting, when one realizes that villagers in Goripora -- who spend their lives pulling out sand from the river Jhelum for ‘proper’ homes to be constructed in the cities while they themselves live in mud-carved or wooden homes, have had their property destroyed in a single night when the river rose and swept furiously over their village. Out of the 350 families in this village located in southern Kashmir’s Pulwama district (where 16 villages have been affected by the floods of September 2014), Save the Children’s assessment shows that 38 families have completely lost their homes out of a total of 84 affected families -- and are now living out in the open waiting for help to rebuild their homes and, indeed, their lives.

Walking past a half-built bridge that would link to the neighbouring Bursoo village across the river, located outside the main village one comes to the home of the barber, who lives outside the village as he belongs to a scheduled caste. His damaged wooden home has holes gaping out of it on all sides and therefore his wife and daughter have been provided a make-shift tin shed for refuge built by the local village committee. When the flood water had begun to rise rapidly, villagers from Goripora had fled on boats to neighbouring Bursoo, Malangpura and Lajoru villages and had remained there for almost a week before attempting to go back to their village as the waters began to recede slowly, moving on to inundate Srinagar and then move further north to Baramulla. Looking out over the bridge where the river has cut across its embankments uprooting scores of trees, it is hard to imagine how the water could have risen over 12 feet to come up and then rise even further to destroy Goripora.

Back in the village, water lies stagnant across many parts and the stench from it is noxious. Animal carcasses are strewn over the landscape, where flattened fields of rice, maize and vegetable crops have left a large portion of the villagers without livelihoods and in debt. There will be no more crops to sow for at least another six months, till Spring. Most of the cattle, goats and chicken have been drowned. There has been no power or water supply to this village for the three weeks since the flood and since most of the personal vehicles of villagers have been made useless by the waters, the village remains secluded and cut-off from the glare of the media, government and even NGOs, who have focussed more on the front-page news crisis of the drowned state capital of Srinagar.

“We get floods in these parts every now and then, though none has been as bad as this one,” informs a dry fruit merchant who is the most prosperous person in the village and is therefore overseeing the local relief response. He adds, “If it weren’t for Srinagar being affected, no one, including you, would have even bothered about us.” Sadly, over the three weeks since the floods, there has been just one medical camp held in the village for a few hours and the government has provided 50 kgs of rice per family. But there has been no other support. Children and adults are complaining of stomach pains and other ailments.

“We are all especially concerned for the families who have lost their homes,” informs Nazir Malik, program manager for Pulwama and Anantnag districts of the local partner JK Yateem Trust adding, “How long can they go on living in the open, especially now that winter is approaching?” The villagers also urgently need food supplies, medicines, clean drinking water, clothes, blankets and lamps, he informs. There has been no fumigation done in the water areas which could pose a health threat. Dead fish can be seen floating on the water, which even the hawks don’t touch as they scan the waters for something to eat. Villagers are washing their household goods in the water, which is also used as drinking water after boiling it.

Since all the four schools in the village, including a private one, are under water and damaged, the children are at a loose end. Ashrafullah Najar, principal of the Jhelum Public School in Goripora, says that he is training his 10 teachers to deal appropriately with the children when school reopens. “We will work together to tackle the fear among children,” he says, pointing out that children who had never seen their parents cry must be feeling especially hopeless at this time. He is also concerned how the school will fund repair of furniture, its library and laboratory.

Save the Children is here today to set up a Child-Friendly Space (CFS), a tented area where children can be left to play and learn in the company of a trained local caregiver. As the two tents are sprung up by the volunteers from the local partner JK Yateem Trust, children and their parents gather excitedly. 24-year-old Farhat-ul-Amin has been chosen from a bunch of applicants to be the facilitator at the CFS for the next few months that it will be operational. As Farhat opens up the bundles of toys, books and stationary, children begin to giggle and chatter. The facilitator seats them in rows, according to their age and starts to interact with them.  She seems to know what it will take to keep the children occupied gainfully: “The children should not get bored,” she says, “and they should feel loved; and then also regain a positive outlook on life”

It’s time to move on…to another two villages with similar yet separate tales of trauma, fear and hopelessness, where the CFS must be set up today.

Devendra Tak (d.tak@savethechildren.in) is National Manager (Media & Communication), Save the Children

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