Villagers are ready to spend lakhs on raising the ground while building houses, say locals
Manojit Das, a fisherperson from Mahadevpur Part 1 village, Cachar, Assam, used the lion's share of his PMAY-G benefits to raise his house 4 feet above the ground. Photo: Rohini Krishnamurthy / CSE This is the fourth part in a series of stories on the aftermath of the 2022 Assam floods. Read the first, second and third parts here.
Manojit Das, a fisherperson from Mahadevpur Part 1 village in Assam’s Katigorah subdivision of Cachar district, is in the process of building his version of a ‘flood-proofed’ house following the devastating 2022 floods.
In 2022, Das and other villagers in the district were struck by two waves of floods. The first one was from April 6 to June 12, the second from June 13 to September 16.
The waves were due to incessant rainfall, according to a document submitted by the state government. Cachar receives an average annual rainfall of more than 3,000 millimetres. On June 19, 2022, the district recorded 251.20 mm — the highest in the last decade.
Mahadevapur Part 1 was one of the more than 180 villages affected by floods in Katigorah, according to information available on District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Silchar, Cachar.
Inside Das’s house, everything was under floodwaters. The 2022 floods fully damaged 381 pucca and 2,345 kutcha houses in the state.
In the aftermath, government officials visited Mahadevapur Part 1 and noted down the personal information of the villagers — their names, phone numbers and bank account details. “They took photos, too,” he said.
The Assam government announced a financial compensation of Rs 3,800 to each family staying in relief camps and other self-arranged shelters. Das, however, did not receive any government compensation.
Sahara Begum from Gumra Grant village in Katigorah estimated that she lost Rs 30,000-40,000 during the floods. She was also not given any compensation, adding that Caritas, a humanitarian organisation, gave them Rs 10,000.
Shamim Ahmed Laskar, district project officer, DDMA, Silchar, said that compensation was provided to 81,544 families. Some 1.5 million people (400,000-500,000 families) were affected by floods in Cachar, according to official data.
Apart from the identification details, local authorities collected information on their land status and land documents from the ground, and by August 30, the information was digitised.
The reason people did not receive compensation was because either the information was not collected properly or the villagers did not possess land documents. “Financial assistance cannot be given to people living in forest land or tea gardens and many people do not have bank accounts,” Laskar explained.
Das has expanded and fortified his house with financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana — Gramin (PMAY-G), which was introduced to boost the “Housing for All” scheme. He was given Rs 1.48 lakh, of which he has used more than a lakh to raise the platform to 4 feet above ground level using bricks. “Nobody taught me this. I am doing this to keep my house safe from floods,” he said.
Das is not the only person in Cachar deploying such strategies. “There is a growing trend of people raising the ground to build houses. People are ready to pay lakhs for this,” Mustafiz Ahmed, a doctor at the Block Primary Health Centre in Jalalpur, observed.
Not everyone can afford this, though. Supriya Mirdha, a resident of Bhatpara village in Katigorah, wants the government to build a community shelter in the adjoining hilly areas to help villagers seek refuge during floods.
Laskar highlighted that the government has already identified 4-5 locations for building flood-shelter homes in Cachar, two of which will be in Katigorah. “We have identified the land. It is still in the planning stage,” he said.
In the meantime, the government has flagged a few initiatives to increase the resilience of the locals. The Community Facilitation & Resource Centre (CFRC) in Cachar will help create awareness, open bank accounts and enroll people in government schemes. “We have covered 5,000 people so far,” Laskar added.
According to minutes of a meeting held on September 8, 2022, in the Office of the Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, 15 CFRCs were planned in the initial stage, one in each block and town. “The Gram Panchayats / wards will be selected based on their vulnerability, distance and willingness,” it read.
There are other efforts to improve the resilience of the locals. Laskar highlighted that providing clean drinking water and sanitation was a challenge in 2022.
SEEDS, a New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, has installed low-cost “terafill” filtration devices to supply clean drinking water in 10 villagers. These devices, designed by the Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, have been installed at a higher elevation to enable locals to have access to clean drinking water.
The filters are not yet functional but locals have their hopes pinned on them. SEEDS has constituted a steering committee, comprising villagers, to manage the filter. “When we do the handover, the people will be trained how to clean the filter,” Rafael Munda, who works with the non-profit, said.
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