08 October 2008

Bihar State, India: UNDP in India plans to triple the numbers of UNV volunteers working on disaster risk and relief in flood-afflicted Bihar, and UNV volunteers are already at the centre of efforts to get people back on their feet.

More than two million people were affected when the Kosi River burst its banks during August 2008, perhaps the worst flooding in the area for 50 years. The new batch of UNV volunteers will gather information on the post-flood situation and bring it to the attention of the District Administrations and the State of Bihar Government. They will also help to coordinate with NGOs, businesses and other partners involved in post-flood operations.

Close to 400,000 people are still living in relief camps and the waters have not yet fully subsided. There is also a danger of more floods should there be heavy rains at the Kosi river’s source in Nepal. Furthermore, agricultural land has been badly affected and is strewn with rubble, which may lead to future crop failures. Emergency Analyst and acting head of UNDP India's Disaster Management Unit, Mr. G. Padmanabhan, says: "The major problem is not just rebuilding houses, it's rebuilding livelihoods."

Local people will therefore need to get engaged in reconstruction efforts. Though UNDP's plans are in the early stages, Mr. Padmanabhan notes that there is a great reservoir of traditional skills in Bihar that may come in useful during the reconstruction phase, and the experience with volunteer management that UNV can bring may be useful in harnessing this.

When the floods hit in August, the UNV volunteers already in Bihar – one in each of the five districts affected - were immediately deployed to support District Administrations with relief coordination, helping to distribute aid and collect essential information. Mr. Padmanabhan says that their local knowledge came in useful. "They speak the local language and know the cultural sensitivities," he notes. They should later be joined by two or three additional UNV volunteer disaster risk and relief experts in each of the five districts.

Though flooding is not uncommon after the South Asian monsoon season, Mr. Padmanabhan explains why the situation was unusual this time. "The districts hit did not have a history of floods," he says. "People did not heed evacuation notices and were stranded when the river changed course unexpectedly”.

UNV volunteers have been working on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in India for several years. About 150 Indian national UNV volunteers are active in 17 states and 175 districts, helping District Administrations build community-level capacity to prepare for disasters by engaging local volunteers.

"The success of DRM programmes in India is down to the ownership by the respective state Governments and local administration, and the facilitation by UNV volunteers," adds Mr. Padmanabhan. "That's acknowledged by both the UN system and the Government, and there is a lot of enthusiasm here for UNV."