Victims of South Asia’s ruinous monsoon floods were eating raw wheat flour to survive in Bihar and other Eastern states in India, as Christian NGOs sought more generous gifts for the victims.
“Villages in Bihar were eating wheat flour mixed with water due to not being able to cook and the inadequacy of government relief efforts,” reported an official. Roads were also blocked and relief camps were looted by angry villagers who demanded more food.
More than 2,000 people have died from snake bites, drowning, diarrhea and house collapses since heaviest monsoon rain said to hit South Asia in over three decades devastated much of northern India and Bangladesh beginning in July. More than 30 million, meanwhile, have been displaced by massive flooding in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal.
"We are sleeping and eating inside the trucks as there is water everywhere and we have nowhere to go," said Anukul Samanta, a villager in West Midnapore district.
Even drinking water has been difficult, he complained.
Christian volunteers and aid agencies that have been serving the flood victims for the past several weeks, have meanwhile been on high alert and are hoping to bolster their relief efforts with financial support from the international community.
According to the latest reports, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff and partners in India are responding to an increase in water-borne illnesses in the Indian state of Bihar on the Nepalese border, an area struggling to recover from the worst monsoon flooding in decades.
