Orissa appeals after floods cause havoc

(September 14, 2011) Church aid agencies in Orissa have appealed for help after floods killed 32 people and affected some two million in the eastern Indian state. “The situation is grim. We have appealed our funding partners to assist the victims,” Father Manoj Kumar Nayak, who directs Social Service Society of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese, said Tuesday. He said the floods have hit 19 of Orissa’s 30 districts. Agencies have requested medical teams to meet the threat of water-borne diseases. He said people are facing an “acute shortage” of safe drinking water. Amrut Prusty, senior program officer of the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) in Orissa, said the state revenue and disaster minister Suryanarayan Patro has appealed to Inter Agency Group (IAG), a forum of national and international NGOs, to send immediate relief to the flood victims. The IAG has prepared a coordination plan to meet the challenge but its officials say their local resources are meagre. The government has miscalculated the flood situation and did not appeal for assistance initially, Prusty said. Kirti Mishra, CRS state representative, said her agency has sent a couple of teams to assess the situation.