The two day relief work started by Hyderabad based Sahayata Trust to provide ration and medicines to the poor and needy flood-affected families of Manipur concluded on Wednesday, July 26th.A total of 1000 families were provided with ration in 14 villages of Imphal East, Imphal West and Thoubal district, which are the low lying areas of Manipur state.Incessant rains in Manipur caused major rivers to overflow and displace people living near the river banks. The flood crisis and landslides started with cyclone Mora that made landfall on May 29 and, under its influence, came heavy rains that lasted for almost 10 days. This was later followed by torrential rains and storms lasting for 10 more days in mid-June and the situation worsened when incessant rains began on June 29.Lower parts of the valley districts comprising—Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Kakching and Thoubal—were submerged in water leaving thousands of people to live in relief camps. As of now, 13 people have died in the floods and a total of 1,387,861 people have been affected.Also, nearly 40,000 hectares of agricultural land, which is about 20% of Manipur’s total agriculture area (1.95 lakh hectare), has been affected by floods.On Tuesday, July 25th, the first day of relief work, 630 families in 12 villages were provided with the ration.
The villages that were covered are; Paobitek, Mayang Imphal Yangbi, Mayang Imphal Bengoon , Phoubakchao , Hangoon, Santhel, Uchiwa, Khelakhong , Heibongmakhong, Keibung, Thoubal Moijing, Irong.On Wednesday, July 26th, the second day of relief work, 370 families were provided with the ration in Lilong and Kairang villages of Manipur.The ration kit included 15kg Rice, 4kg pulses, 1 litre cooking oil, 2kg onion , 1 kg Sugar, 250grm, different spices as well as emergency medicines.Basir Jan, 63 from village Keibung lost his entire crop in the floods. “Growing crop was our mainstay, but everything has washed away in the gusty floods. Nothing has left, everything is over. This relief will at least ensure that we remain fed, until things return back to normal.”Another flood victim, Amita Begum, 22 from Mayang Imphal Yangbi is expected to become mother soon, but her house was submerged in flood water and she was forced to flee and take refuge in a relief camp where the conditions are worse. “I frequently have headaches. Besides, there was short of food. Now we have enough food for over more than a month.”Haliman Begum, 66 from Mayang Imphal Bengoon was very happy to receive the grains and appreciated Sahayata Trust for initiating the relief work.Syed Abdul Najeeb, the project manager of Sahayata Trust, who had reached the flood affected districts of Manipur to supervise and coordinate the relief work with a local team of volunteers, said, “We did a thorough survey of all the major flood affected areas of Manipur and zeroed on the 14 villages, where the population is predominantly poor and had nothing to eat. The conditions are worse. People are living in relief camps which are covered in water from all sides.”“These relief initiatives are taken by us from the perspective of humanity, without thinking for caste, creed & religion,” he added.