KUMIRMARI (SOUTH 24-PARGANAS): A month after Cyclone Aila hit the Sunderbans, the hungry tide continues to be fought by thousands of hungrier people.
n half-empty stomachs, diarrhoea-ridden villagers many of them without homes are still working to keep the rivers at bay. With little governmental help and sapped by a constant exodus of people away from the region, enthusiasm is low and progress slow.
Late on Saturday, at Majherpara in Kumirmari, about a hundred descended on a damaged embankment in a last ditch effort to plug a 500-metre breach before another high tide came in.
"Work started here only a week back after a number of contractors backed out. There aren't enough men, so women and children have joined to help. But it will be difficult to finish the work here without an earth-moving equipment which the contractor has promised to bring on Sunday," local panchayat member Tapan Mandol said.
On Sunday morning, though, there was no sign of any machine as the small army of worker regrouped to protect the embankment from the tide. A representative of the contractor claimed the equipment was being loaded onto a boat at Dhamakhali.
External help notwithstanding, many members of the 210 families in the area stayed away from the embankment work. Of those abstaining, a significant number are afflicted by diarrhoea.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata-/Villagers-still-fighting-hungry-tide/articleshow/4699178.cms
n half-empty stomachs, diarrhoea-ridden villagers many of them without homes are still working to keep the rivers at bay. With little governmental help and sapped by a constant exodus of people away from the region, enthusiasm is low and progress slow.
Late on Saturday, at Majherpara in Kumirmari, about a hundred descended on a damaged embankment in a last ditch effort to plug a 500-metre breach before another high tide came in.
"Work started here only a week back after a number of contractors backed out. There aren't enough men, so women and children have joined to help. But it will be difficult to finish the work here without an earth-moving equipment which the contractor has promised to bring on Sunday," local panchayat member Tapan Mandol said.
On Sunday morning, though, there was no sign of any machine as the small army of worker regrouped to protect the embankment from the tide. A representative of the contractor claimed the equipment was being loaded onto a boat at Dhamakhali.
External help notwithstanding, many members of the 210 families in the area stayed away from the embankment work. Of those abstaining, a significant number are afflicted by diarrhoea.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata-/Villagers-still-fighting-hungry-tide/articleshow/4699178.cms
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