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WaterAid India's northern regional office and the Government of Bihar's Department of Disaster Preparedness are carrying out a disaster preparation programme in five districts of Bihar - Muzzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samsastipur and Sitamarhi .

The field report below, dated September 6th, by a team including Ms. Medha Patkar, finds that rescue operations are ongoing and thousands of people are still stranded:

UPDATE ON THE FLOOD SITUATION IN BIHAR

• Image and Content Courtesy: FMIS & Govt of Bihar Disaster Management Department .
• The Disaster Management Department of the Govt. of Bihar has a website providing detailed analysis, statistics related to the current flood situation.

India Development and Relief Foundation's mission is : " to support volunteer-based, honest and highly experienced non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in India in serving their populations’ critical needs around education, healthcare, and welfare, without regard to religion, caste or creed.

• Asha for Education  is a well-known group of individuals working on education and other issues.
• Asha's Varanasi chapter is accepting donations for flood relief work: Click here .

Karmayog has compiled an extensive listing of organisations that are working in the flood areas and are accepting donations. See Here

North Bihar has a long history of flooding.Through a series of posts here, we will attempt to explain the background of flooding in Bihar and what are the root causes.

Courtesy: biharfloodrelief2008.blogspot.com 

Dr. Jagannath Mishra, former Chief Minister of Bihar, has given a pathetic description of floods in Bihar. He said that "Nobody from the government has gone to Saharsa so far. If the people in Saharsa are surviving, they must be saying that we are engulfed in water since ten days and nobody is there to think about us. This is quite worrisome. I will suggest that we must try to look after those surviving there. We must try to save them, whether by boats or a helicopter.. The flood in Saharsa is not a flood, this is unprecedented¦.we cannot call it a flood, it is a deluge." But wait, he is not talking about the recent floods (2008) in Bihar. He was making a speech in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha on the 13th September 1984 about a similar incident that took place on the 5th September 1984 near Navhatta in Saharsa district of north Bihar when the Kosi had breached its embankment at 75th kilometer south of the much talked about Bhimnagar Barrage and come out of the jacket just as it happened at Kusaha this year. Obviously, the powers that be refuse to take any lessons from the past mistakes and their executive wing, the Water Resources Department, is immune to any criticism and learning. The 1984 incident had uprooted nearly half a million people from their homes and hearths and engulfed 96 villages spread over 7 blocks of Saharsa and Supaul districts then. They could return to their homes only after the Holi festival in March 1985.