Flooding in India’s eastern Bihar state has affected nearly five million people, officials said on Tuesday as aid was being sent the worst-hit areas.
Bihar is among India’s most flood-prone states and all seven of its key rivers measured above their “danger level” on Tuesday after heavy rain, according to the state water resources department.
“Food, clean drinking water, medicines, and other essential facilities are being continuously provided to the needy families,” Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bihar’s deputy chief minister, said in a statement.
Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said 7,000 rupees ($72) each had been transferred to more than 827,000 flood-affected families in the state.
Nearly five million people have been affected by floods, according to figures from Bihar’s Disaster Management Department.
The government’s “priority is that every affected family gets flood relief and reconstruction work is done with a spirit of building back better”, Choudhary said in a statement.
Flooding began this month and local media have reported 20 deaths, while officials said swaths of farmland have been swamped. Bihar is downstream from Nepal, which suffered deadly flooding last month.
“Flood is our fate, every year we face it,” said Chandan Kumar Mahto, 46, a resident of Saran district. “We are helpless... we are struggling for food, safe drinking water and milk for children.”
Bihar’s government is made up of a coalition of parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
It said it had opened 13 relief camps, with more than 1,000 community kitchens and nearly 1,800 boats deployed in flood-hit areas.
Modi has sent a federal government team to conduct a “detailed assessment of damages”, officials said.
Lakhmania Devi, 42, from Vaishali district, said she and her family took shelter on their roof after floodwaters entered their home.
“We live like nomads, without a kitchen to prepare food and drink dirty water to survive,” she said.
Hari Mandal, 28, a laborer from Ghogha village in Bhagalpur district, said he could not work.
“If it continues longer, I will go without food as there are no savings left to survive,” he said.
