Effort of INSS in response to AILA in

Sundarban area.

Background

A severe natural calamity i.e. dreadful cyclone known as “Aila” clubbed with heavy rain fall hit Sundarban and other parts of Bengal at 9.30 AM on 24 th of May. Raised sea / tidal river water caused by the storm affected thousands of villages of Sundarbans. Damages were mostly done due to collapse of the embankment. Saline water from the river and sea entered villages and washed off habitation within few hours.

The damages caused by the wind and air are as under1. 90 – 95 % of the houses were mud built. Most of them were collapsed or

washed off. Houses lost fully or partly, family took shelter in the high ground, mostly in the school building.

2. The villagers were living on road and as monsoon rain started they are staying in miserable condition.

3. Loss of the livestock was enormous; most of the families could not bring their livestock with them during the run. Goat, poultry, ducks etc. are nearly too extinct form the affected area as only few which survived also dying in diseases.

4. The Rabi crop is totally damaged, As long as saline water would prevail, no crops can be grown. There would be total shortage of food stuff & vegetables as river saline water swamp the fields.

5. All Pan Borojs (Battle vines) were either collapsed or washed away.6. The scarcity of food was enormous. All the stored food were washed off so

starvation is the only way other than external food supply. 7. Fodder was also not available for the survived cattles.8. The pond’s and other water harvesting structures lost their utility as saline water

contaminated. Pond water turned saline causing great casualties of aquatic animals, particularly the fresh water fishes. Rotten fishes also making the water more unhygienic.

9. Village roads were having 3 – 6 inches deep clay.10. School buildings were brick built, but the floor was not cemented. The saline

water turned the floor into paddy fields with clay.11. Crocodile entered the villages with saline water as reported. 12. The fishermen lost their nets and boats.

The table below gives the details of casualties in the district.

Name of GPNo. of

village

No. of house affected Life

lostFully Partly

Pathar Pratima 38 16964 12897 12

Mathurapur II 3l 2906 5730 0

Namkhana 15 4170 6350 2Gosaba 50 25946 23456 40Basanti 67 11558 14565 16

Effort of INSS in response

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INSS could mobilize resources from various donors such as Oxfam India, GD Charitable trust, UNICEF, CORD AID for extending relief and rehabilitation work in the area. The goal and objective set by INSS was as underTo contribute to decrease mortality and morbidity arising from Cyclone Aila.To provide immediate support to decrease public health risks to 10,000 affected households through provision of

Water and sanitation facilities, Public health services Temporary shelter materials

Project Location

INSS concentrated mainly in eight worst hit blocks of South 24 Paraganas the Panchayats and villages selected in these eight blocks are given in the table below

Block Panchayet No. of Villages Namkhana Mausuni 2

Haripur 4Narayanpur 2

Pathar Pratima G Plot 5Basanti Basanti 5

Jharkhali 2Bharatgarh 3Jyotishpur 4Ramchandrakhali 3Uttar Mokamberia 2Phul malancha 2Kanthalberia 1Charaividya 2Amjhara 2

Mathurapur II Kankandighi 5

Raidighi 7

Kumrapara 6

Nagendrapur 7

Nandakumarpur 9

Kultali Gurguria 1

Baikunthapur 4

Gosaba Gosaba 3

Pathar Pratima Brajaballavpur 6

Banashyamnagar 2

Sridharnagar 3

Ramganga 2

G-Plot 9

Achintanagar 1

Durgachati 2

Digambarpur 2

Gopalnagar 5

Pathar Pratima 1

Canning Itkhola 9

Activities designed

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Coordination with local stakeholders and key persons. Identification and Registration of affected families. Identification and orientation of volunteers Distribution of NFI kits Distribution of food items Distribution of Lantern, Tarpaulin etc. Follow-up visits to ensure that beneficiaries are properly utilizing the materials Public Health Promotion activities thorough PHP volunteers Dewatering and cleaning of ponds. Emergency latrine construction. Village cleaning Tube well repairing

4. Beneficiaries

The project targeted around 30000 households in four blocks Beneficiaries were selected after a detailed survey. Survey was carried out to asses and identifies the affected families. Only the affected families are treated as direct beneficiaries. The whole program was mostly designed for the primary beneficiaries. Though the program also carried out activities which helped other not so affected families i.e. secondary beneficiaries. Village cleaning, pond cleaning, Pond dewatering, tube well repairing, emergency latrine are such activities from which secondary beneficiaries got benefited. The table below gives details of the primary beneficiaries.

Village representatives were selected in the beginning of the project. From each GP one such representative was selected and they were involved in all stages of planning. Community meetings were organised and most of the critical decisions used to be taken from these meetings only. The participants list used to be prepared in the community meetings.

The involvement of women in the planning and implementation was ensured trough sensitisation of the community in the meetings. All the places of emergency latrine was decided by the women members. Village cleaning is mostly done by the women. They took the leadership in the village cleaning. IPC for the PHP activity is mostly done through women. For this reason only INSS employed mostly women volunteers.

Quantitative achievement

The table below gives the details of the achievement in each designed activity.Activities Name of Donor No.of family

coveredTotal No. of families

covered

Distribution of NFI kits

Oxfam India 7986

20548Unicef 1000Cord Aid 500GD Charitable Society

11062

Distribution of food items

GD Charitable Society

33305 33305

Distribution of Lantern, Mosquito

Nets etc.

Cord Aid 500 500

Public Health Promotion activities

Oxfam India 11900 11900

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thorough PHP volunteers

Dewatering and cleaning of ponds.

Oxfam India 165

757GD Charitable Society

535

Cord Aid 57Emergency latrine

construction.Oxfam India 80 80

Village cleaning Oxfam India 13 13Tube well repairing Oxfam India 78 78

Health CampsGD Charitable Society

4979

Cord Aid 30Book Distribution for HS School students

GD Charitable Society

400400

Pond Dewatering and Cleaning

Due to the devastating storm Aila, ponds were contaminated with saline water and it lost the utility for household and farm use. So, it was needed to dewater so it can store the fresh rainwater and resume usage. Diesel driven pump sets are used for drying and simultaneously the cleaning operations carried out by the villagers. All the ponds were covered with leaves, straws and wooden parts of the tree. Those materials are cleaned manually.

Village Cleaning

After the calamity of Aila all the villages were got polluted due to prolonged inundation as the most of the vegetative matter got decomposed. It used to smell and became infectious and carrier of many diseases. Many places were water logged so stagnated water gave birth to many mosquitos. Cleaning of the locality was essential and villagers were also realised that. Villages were cleaned to restore hygienic condition. Community participated to clean their villages as a campaign. Female participation was 70%. They worked with local tools, racks and pot made with bamboo. During the cleaning programme local market, health centre, Schools, roads etc were also cleaned.

Temporary Latrine Construction:

Due to catastrophic situation by Aila people got displaced from their houses and forced to stay on the highland places, i.e. roadside, riverbanks, high schools, flood centres cum FP schools etc. They needed temporary latrines. It was planned that each unit would be formed with two latrines. One was for ladies and the other for gents members of the community. After completion of each unit of latrine user groups were formed with female members and decided that only ladies and children would use all units.

Tube-well repairing:

For the severe devastation by Aila, most of the tube-wells of Sundarbans got contaminated with saline water. Safe drinking water and using for other family purpose i.e. bathing, washing and for livestock was a big problem of the area. Repairing of the

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tube wells were the urgent need of the area and also of the community. Tube wells were identified and mechanics from community involved in tube well repairing activities. Only the cases of minor repairing were handled with the project. Initial survey identified the tube wells which can be restored by minor interventions. One day training on tube-well repairing and maintenance was given to two participants from each villages. They were recommended by local Panchayats and INSS for the same. They were given tube well repairing tool kits to maintain tube wells of their localities for future.

Distribution of food items:

As the vast area of Sundarban overflowing with high salinated water and destroyed lakhs of mud houses, people had to flee from their living place to the high land areas i.e. schools, roads etc. without taking food to sustain. INSS provide dry food to the people of seven blocks of Sundarban with the support of GD Charitable Society-Kolkata.

Book distribution:

Lakhs of students lost their books and kept standing before the question of how they run their study. Govt. decided to support books only for the students under or up to Madhyamik (Secondary) level. It was also true that there were more students who were studying in Higher Secondary level. INSS provide books for them in the area of Pathar Pratima Block with the support of GD Charitable Society.

NFI Kits Distribution:

Lakhs of people become shelter less, no food to live. INSS decided to give Non Food Item (NFI) to the cyclone affected people. It was also decided which items to be given maintaining conditions of public health and hygiene. It was decided that the entire distribution activities would be by two phases. Before distribution a detailed plan was prepared discussing with Oxfam-India. According to the plan distribution volunteers was selected and preposition activity was done on the day before the distribution day. On the distribution day PHP volunteers also engaged to share with each beneficiary about the using methods of each items. It was found that each distribution activity was completed within two or three hours with a proper guidance of Oxfam-India and heartiest cooperation of volunteers.

NFI kits for each family containing following items:

1st Phase (12th June- 18th June’09)

2nd Phase(17th July to 22nd July’09)

3rd Phase

Bucket with lid- 2Mug -2 Tarpaulin – 1Ground Sheet- 1Aqua Tab – 60 pcsRopes – 1 pcs ( 20 metre)Bathing Soap- 2Washing soap -2

Impregnated Mosquito Net- 2Sanitary napkins- 1bagAqua tab – 180 pcsBathing soap-4 pcs

Bathing soap- 4 pcsAqua Tab- 120 pcsSanitary cloth- 1 bag

Public Health Promotion (PHP):

After the devastating storm Aila, many diseases started to hamper the lives of the affected people, Diarrhoea broke down in most of the Aila affected areas, to prevent human being from these adverse effects, the Public Health Promotion (PHP) activity’s initiative was taken. PHP activity is definitely a very essential part of the program, PHP volunteers’ identification and their training programs were done to serve the purpose.

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There are total 60 volunteers in this activity. The table below gives the details of the sub activities.

Sub activity Number Families benefited/participatedHH Visit 7986 7986Village Campaigning 27 3728ORS Booth 88 Nearly 8000 familiesBanner 390 Nearly 70000 familiesCommunity Meeting 1603 19236 participantsUser Committee for Latrine

40 280

Outcome and impact

The direct outcome observed after and during the project are given as under

Through PHP activity the disease outbreak could be stopped. Village cleaning program helped to reduce the number of mosquitoes. Mosquito net also helped to stop the spread of Malaria. Dewatering of ponds helped the ponds to restore and people resumed use

pond water for bathing and other purpose. Tube well repairing is proved as one of the major instrumental activity. As it

provided most crucial safe drinking water and also reduced the hazards of women from long distance water fetching.

Emergency latrine helped the displaced families to dispose safely. Women member of the disposed families could use the latrine and maintain their dignity of life. It also stopped spread of germs due to safe disposal.

Door to door visit and other way of campaigning helped the affected families to increase awareness on basic health and hygiene issues of life. It has also a indirect bearing on the spread of diseases.

Further need of the area

The affected people steel could not resume their normal life. Education, livelihood, housing and drinking water are the major areas which need further intervention. Last two also needs intervention strategies which will keep further disaster occurrence in mind. Drinking water tube wells needs to be installed which are raised from the ground to clear inundation during flood. House construction required to tolerate the wind and water. INSS has already drawn a disaster area plan which has specified intervention in different sectors. It has started effort of sharing the concept to donors for generating resources. The next section will elaborate the plan of action in different thematic areas.

Livelihood

Major livelihood of the area is agriculture and allied activities along with fishing. Every disaster brings huge loss in agriculture as the lands are not equipped or designed to combat such disaster or raised water level. Prototype designed for the area for better land husbandry is given in the schematic diagram below

Before interventionPresently crops get submerged due to flood as the lands are below the flood water level

After interventionPond will be excavated and the excavated earth will be used for raising the rest of the plot above the flood water level. So the crops will survive from the flood and year long vegetable will be possible

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in this type of land. Fisheries possible in the excavated pond.

Improved paddy production, vegetable and fisheries need to be established in the area through series of training, demonstration, cultivation exposures, handholding to the farmers.

Education

The drop outs and trafficking was major problem of the area before AILA and after the disaster these two became more predominant as the families are migrating to the district of Burdwan and Hooghly to work as labors. INSS plan to open school cum vocational centers for the school drop outs. Along with the normal education they will go through training in selected trades like carpentry, welding, mason and tailoring. So that during the schooling they can earn a stipend to continue their study and after the schooling they can work as a skilled labour.

Housing

INSS foresee the housing in the area needs innovative intervention. The houses needs to be build above the flood water level and also should have a solid structure and covered by temporary walls. So that after each disaster the structure remains and only walls need to be covered by temporary partitions which is cheap and locally available.

Drinking water

The tube wells in the area are not enough and after each disaster most of them got damaged. It plays an additional disastrous effect in the area. Better designed tubewells need to be installed in the area which should be raised again above the flood water level.

Disaster preparedness

Disaster preparedness is another major area where families need to be trained. INSS will train the SHG members to prepare from disasters.

AILA 2009: 24 South Paraganas, West Bengal

MULTI-SECTORAL ASSESSMENT ON PRESENT SITUATION AFTER 3 MONTHS OF AILA AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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Location: G-Plot Gram Panchayet of Pathar Pratima Block

Duration: Sept 4-5, 2009 – AssessmentSept 7, 2009 -Report writing by regional teams

Dates: 3rd September – 4 September 2009

Composition: Water and Sanitation -Health - Livelihood recovery -Shelter -Gender - Media & Communications -

Team Leader: Sanchari DattaMembers: 1. Muzibar Rahman Khan

2. Somdatta Chatterjee3. Murshid Alom Sheikh4. Golam Mohammad

BACKGROUD

A high velocity cyclone (120kph) hit Southern Bengal in end of May 2009 devastating thousands of life. Worst hit areas have been the islands of Sunderban Cyclone Aila, unleashed a four-meter high tidal surge and flooded low-lying regions overflowing the embankments washing off thousands of households completely.

‘We lost every thing that mattered to us. Paddy that we cultivated last Kharif has been completely washed off. What will we depend on now? We are left with only this single saree that we are wearing.’ This was the cry of the hour. Saline water was all over stranded for 15 days.

This was the picture through out the Sunderban islands. Humanitarian support poured in from all corners as per the need of the time. Emergency relief camps and shelters were constructed to shift the homeless people to a safe place. Organisation big or small jumped into the action with there support based on immediate need like dry food supply, clothes, tarpaulin, medicines, ORS and even drinking water.

INSS reached G-Plot Panchayat within few days of the severity and have been serving a part of the island with humanitarian needs public health promotion (PHP) activities to prevent the immediate health disaster. The PHP and PHE activities with minor repairing of tube wells and emergency latrine construction reflected tremendous impact within the community.

It has been over three months now and the need of the people has started shifting from emergency relief support to sustainable development support. With this objective an assessment of the G-plot Gram Panchayat under Patharpratima Block of South 24 Parganas district was done by INSS. At present after the immediate emergency response the requirement has been to look at the short term humanitarian needs and multi-sectoral situation analysis in the sectors of water and sanitation, food security & livelihoods, shelter and health, and environment and gender relations impacting peoples lives and come out with some do-able recommendations.

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METHODOLOGY

This objective of this situational analysis is to assess the need of the area and come out with the solutions as recommendations from the community concerned. To do this situational analysis two different tools of Participatory Rural Assessments (PRA) were used: Focused group distribution and Observation.

A team of 6 people worked in two different groups and conduct 8 FGD’s and also discussed with block representative of Government to understand their plan of action for the AILA so that duplication of work does not happen.

FGD’s were conducted in 6 different villages to have maximum representation of different groups and understand the situation is all parts of the island. Out of the 8 FGD’s 2 were exclusively with women groups, 1 with grass root level workers (PHP volunteers) and 1 with elites of the island like school masters, Panchayat members, etc.

ANALYSIS:

G-plot island of Patharpratima block is the last island and borders Bay of Bengal on the southern part. The area is vulnerable to climatic hazards and almost all the year round it faces heavy showers with strong wind added with soil erosion of the river embankments. Flooding of the southern villages in the monsoon due to breaking away of embankment is a common concern of the area for the last 10-12 years. This year too after the cyclone the weather has added to the concerns of the population with high tide and low depressions at regular intervals over the area. Rainfall and strong wind along with high tide has made the river level to rise which has made the islanders alert of another flooding as the embankments could not be repaired in such weathers.

G-plot Gram Panchayat has 9 villages with a total population of 36656 and 6198 households. Almost the whole island 28.962 Km long and 3 km wide was affected by cyclone. But still the worst affected has been 3 villages in the southern tip of the island- Buraburirtat, Dakshin Sitarampur and Uttar Sitarampur. Saline water entered overflowing the embankments as well as breaking the wall of the embankments. In the whole island 3570 households has been affected in cyclone with 2289 of households completely damaged and close to 30 households completely loosing their homestead land either due to breakage of river embankment or new embankment being made on that portion.

The primary need of the people have been affected due to the cyclone. As it came up from the FGD’s also in 100% cases top priorities have been placed to shelter and food as their biggest concern and needs to be resolved.

Shelter:

People who are living in temporary structures have three types of problems-1. They don’t have enough resource at the present moment to reconstruct their

houses and are living in temporary structures made of tarpaulin.2. People had to move away from their normal home as those are still water

logged or are vulnerable as they are just beside the river and hence they are living inside the village on road sides or raised area in temporary shelters.

3. People who have been completely displaced from their normal home as the land has been eroded away or embankments have been made on it now and hence they are also living on occupied land in temporary shelters.

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Common to the last two groups are lack of resources.

Almost all affected families with damaged houses are staying in temporary shelters made of tarpaulin or small mud structures in unhygienic condition and insecure especially for women. As many as 27 families have been displaced from their land in the whole island and they have moved inwards and are either living with their relatives or have made temporary structures on occupied land.

People as a practice in the island live in mud huts with thatched roofs. But as it came up during discussion in two places- Dakshin Sitarampur and Satya Daspur community feels this structure is not suitable for the environment condition as the area is prone to cyclone and flooding almost every year so better semi-pacca structures (houses with pillars) are required to prevent complete damage of the house during heavy flooding.

The present environment with high temperatures followed by low depression hence rainfall and strong winds have made living unhealthy in the temporary structures of tarpaulin sheets. They are small low structures made of plastics which make the temperature inside hot on sunny days and quite muddy on rainy days. Added to these if the family size is big 6/7 members living condition becomes worse off.

Food Security / livelihood

The biggest concern for the community has been food security for the coming one year. People depend on land (agriculture) as their biggest source of food security. The biggest crises to the community has been the saline land and water composition due to flooding and hence without cultivation in the monsoon and as expected also during Kharif season as land will still remain saline and fresh water won’t be available. No crops-paddy or any vegetable are suitable for cultivation on these land and in the last three months all vegetable supply for the island had to be met from outside the island.

Saline water that entered into has moved out mostly but still many low lying paddy fields and ponds have saline water stranded on it as dewatering has not been done for those lands. Only 1/4th of the ponds in the island have been dewatered till date which has affected sweet water availability of the village. This has also affected the hygiene condition of the village.

If we categorize people into different groups and see their problem of food security and livelihood-

1. landed people who cultivated their own land and had food security minimum for 5/6 months of the year or through out the year could not cultivate land this Ravi season due to land salinity

2. land less people who cultivated on leased land last Kahrif season but lost their produce due to flooding and don’t have food security any more

3. Land less people who worked as agri-labour is unemployed and don’t have work.

The biggest concern now the community is facing is no income coupled with high food price which they have to purchase to survive. Migration is on high for search of work. Close to 600 people from the community has migrated out to Kolkata, Hooghly, Burdwan for work.

‘Shop keepers are also fearing that they have to sell on credit through out the year, so they are also stopping scaling down their business.’- ex-Panchayat members

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Another source of income for the households- saline and fresh water fish cultivation were also destroyed due to flooding and since then as hundred percent pond has not been dewatered fresh water is not available in ponds and hence fresh water fish cultivation is not feasible.

As community mentioned not only agriculture but due to bad weather condition others sources of living like fishing in sea, fish-ling catching has also been affected. Enough catch is not available and also due to bad weather people are not going into sea. This is turn is affecting those who depended on this trade indirectly by repairing fishing nets.

Livestock (cow, birds, and goat/sheep) numbers have decreased in huge amounts due to death and selling. Non-availability of feed for livestock is forcing households to sell off their assets. Also diseases of livestock like for cow can also be observed in parts.

Lastly earth work is not available during this season normally although this has been the only source of income for the community this season.

Health- Hygiene and Sanitation

Health has always been placed as the secondary need of the people. In this case also community places their health need as their third priority. It could be observed in the areas where OXFAM and INSS had implemented PHP program the incidence of diarrehoea fever and other water borne and vector borne diseases has been low compared to areas where the program was not implemented. But still water borne disease like jaundice, typhoid and diarrehoea can still be observed and also skin infections are on rise. Tube wells are available for fresh water supply, but they are far less than required. There are 130 tube wells in the island for a population of over 36000.

As women share ‘there are tube wells within the walking distance of 10-15 minutes but 150-200 household depend on that water source for all purposes starting from drinking water to bathing, washing clothes, utensils and even for animals. We go and queue up from 3a.m in the morning. Then also we find we are standing after 50/60 people in the queue.’

In Satya Daspur (tribal inhabited) where no dewatering of pond has been done and tube well are not sufficient community is still depending on saline water of the pond for bathing and washing clothes and dishes.

Sanitation is also a concern which has led to increase in cases of diarrehoea and other water borne diseases. Sanitary latrines are not sufficient in number and in many cases the latrines are overflowing and hence not in useable condition. Also as number of latrines and wash rooms are less women specially are facing problems as it is not practically feasible in most cases to use community wash rooms constructed by WATSAN program.

Women are facing added problem during menstruation and majority of the women have already started showing symptoms of reproductive track infections like pain in lower abdomen, increased white discharge and irregularity in menstruation.

Nutrition level of the community has deteriorated on the whole due to less consumption intake of calories and balanced diet. This is turn is increasing the level of health hazards.

Education:

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Although it did not come out as severe concern but is three FGD’s this was pointed out. Children education has been affected due to cyclone by-

1. school books lost due to sudden flooding and it is getting difficult for many to purchase it due to financial constrain

2. school dresses lost and parents are unable to purchase it again due to same reason

Recommendations-

The problems or concerns after three months of the disaster are showing signs of long term recovery. But areas that came out through discussion that needs immediate attention are-

Shelter:

Semi-pacca structure of house required to resist the weather condition in the island. Semi-pacca structure means houses build on ready made concrete or bricked pillars to give it strength. This will prevent the houses to fall off completely in case of future floods. As low cost houses locally available materials community suggested in two cases also suggested for pillars of eucalyptus tree bark. Bamboo is not abundantly available in the island and it has to be imported from mainland. Walls of the houses can be built with mats of bamboo canes or mud while roofs can either be of straws or of tiles.

Government also has plan for giving support of Rs.10000 in case of fully damaged houses and Rs.4000 in case of partially damaged houses. But as Saha-Sabhapati of Patharpratima block mentioned the funds available is far below than demanded by the block so numbers reaching the Panchayat will be far below than requirement.

In this respect advocacy and networking can be done with Government for distributing the cost; partial payment can be done by Government while partially can be done by Non-Government organisations.

Food Security and Livelihood

Ensuring food security of the people in a very short time period would be the most difficult task considering the present weather and land-water condition. No concrete solution came out from any meeting although there were many suggestions by different groups and cultures.

1. It is certain to meet the immediate need, the vulnerable sections like women headed family or family with physically unable male members should be provided rations/relief for a period of 4/5 months

As livelihood options considering the present land water condition activities that can be taken up and supported are-

1. Salt water fish cultivation like shrimp, Vetki cultivation in ponds as well low lying paddy fields in scientifically and technically sound process under complete technical guidance.

2. crab cultivation with tribal community in small ponds or paddy fields still under saline water can be initiated

3. Mixed farming of fish and 20 khakee Campbell ducks. Duck will provide feed for fish while duck will be continuous income source for the households.

4. Land water management

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a. Dewatering of ponds and excavating it. The land excavated can be put along side the pond embankments to raise the height. This will help in vegetable cultivation on the embankments and fish cultivation in ponds.

b. Digging of land for small pond and raising heights of land with the earth, which will decreasing salinity of top soil and also add to water source during Kharif season

c. In three FGD’s the concept of shallow came up. Although there were lot of debates on the pro’s and cons of this form of irrigation system and also keeping in mind the salinity of water under ground level.

5. To fishing community small boats (single user) and nets can be given which got destroyed in cyclone to start their livelihood

6. Pig farming can be done with tribal community based in the northern part of the island.

7. If possible saline water prone paddy seeds for cultivation in saline conditions

Government does not have specific plan of action to increase income of people except for more 100 days work under NREGS. But there are various administrative constrains in its implementation.

Health-Hygiene and Sanitation

As community felt and recommended for better living under healthy condition and also observing it is recommended that-

1. More tube wells have to be installed in the island as per sphere indicator. Government plans included installations of 13 tube wells in the Panchayat, installation of which are already in process or completed. No the number of tube wells existing in the village includes them too.

2. Dewatering of 100% ponds required for its effectiveness3. Continue supply of aqua tab for safe drinking water4. Raising heights of tube wells so that in future they don’t get submerged during

flooding leading to contamination.5. Installation of more sanitary latrines. As preferred by community and specially

women it has be private and at individual level. 6. As recommended by the elites of the island continue health promotion program

(PHP) for another term of 6 months 7. Continue supply of ORS to prevent diarrehoea especially during monsoon and

until all ponds are dewatered which increases the chase of diarrehoea. 8. As recommended by health promoters continue supply of medicines through

camps as people don’t have income which is forcing them to stop taking medicines.

9. specialist doctors and medicines for treatment of RTI

Education:

For complete have-nots supply of some books so that they can continue studies.

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