*Massive de-watering operation begins in Srinagar, more pumps being airlifted
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 15: After doctors warned that stagnant water will lead to massive influx of water borne diseases, authorities today launched a massive dewatering operation from flood-hit areas of the city to drain out water.
The water pumps including two from the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) have been mostly installed in Tulsibagh, Kursu, Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar areas of Srinagar city which were worst affected by the floods.
Officials said here that 30 water pumps have been put into service to carry out de-watering operation. They said the Fire and Emergency Services has pressed in nearly 20 fire tenders to flush out the water from flood hit areas of the city.
Officials said that six more ONGC pumps are arriving tomorrow and water will be pumped out from major parts of Srinagar city by the end of this week.
They said that the pumping of water is a major operation as large parts of Srinagar city are under several feet of water. Water is receding gradually and some of the roads connecting Southern part of city with North of city, that mostly remained unaffected, have now opened for traffic.
The normal life in non-flood hit parts of Srinagar city is gradually picking up while confusion and chaos prevails in flood hit areas where aid workers are helping the flood hit victims.
Majority of the missing people have now been re-united with their families after over a week as communication is gradually improving.
Local residents are anxiously watching the water level in the area and are hopeful that the weather will hold up over the next few days in order to augment the efforts of the authorities.
In the meantime, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) also woke up today after 8 days and started clearing the debris from the stinking Srinagar city. And the Police also appeared for the first time in certain areas of the city and were regulating the traffic.
Bashir Qadri, of Karan Nagar said: “We have seen first sign of Government today as garbage is being lifted by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) at many places from Srinagar city. The police also appeared today at a couple of places to regulate traffic. The de-watering of inundated parts of the city has started.”
The Bone and Joints Hospital at Barzulla that was first to get flooded was made operational today. Over 100 patients visited the hospital today and doctors said 70-80 percent patients had injuries due to flood. “We admitted 12 patients here today and we are gradually starting operations”, said doctors.
Dr Altaf Hussain, renowned pediatrician and leading doctor of Kashmir who is now treating flood victims in camps today said that there is shortage of life saving drugs and suggesting streamlining of distribution of medicines and aid.
“We have shortage of life saving drugs like injectable and oral insulin, anti-diabetic drugs, upper respiratory track antibiotics, hypertension medicine, intravenous fluids and diapers and sanitary napkins for women”, said Dr Altaf.
The doctor said: “Besides the shortage of medicines, there is also mal-distribution of medicine and aid. There are too many drugs in one medical camp and at other camp there are other drugs available. We need some nongovernmental nodal authority for distribution of drugs. We also need drugs for gastroenteritis, tablets for adults and suspension for children. We also need paracetamol and brufin and skin infection antibiotics.”
Dr Altaf said: “We also need tented maternity hospital as the main maternity hospital delivering 100 children a day is non-functional due to water logging.”
The pediatrician said that there is urgent need of aerial fumigation to fight the water borne diseases. “We need aerial fumigation for stagnant waters as these waters can cause waterborne diseases including cholera.”
Dr Nissar Bhat, Physician in South Kashmir, said that water borne diseases have already broken in South Kashmir that was first hit by floods. “Gastroenteritis has already broken in South Kashmir. Our hospital in Tral that was the only hospital operational till yesterday was receiving 30-40 patients daily. Now the main hospital in South Kashmir has been made functional and the patients are now being treated there”, he added.
Dr Nisar said: “There is shortage of anti-biotic, cardiac and respiratory and anti-diabetic drugs. The stores of main distributors of these medicines are submerged and the medicine has got destroyed. The main challenge is when water level recedes as there will be massive influx of water borne diseases.”
The General Secretary of Indian Red Cross Society, J&K, Roma Wani today told Excelsior that the IRC has launched a massive relief and rescue operation. “We distributed 1582 tents, 16, 000 blankets, 750 tarpaulin sheets, 1000 kitchen sets, 450 solar lights, 200 dead body bags, 25 toilet seats, two automatic water purifiers and manual water purifiers having capacity of supplying 80, 000 liters of purified water per day. We also rescued 2500 people from inundated areas”, she added.
A Defence spokesman said here today that over 2. 34 persons have been rescued so far by the Armed Forces and NDRF from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir in the ongoing rescue and relief operations in the flood ravaged State. “Three teams of Naval Marine Commandos are actively involved in rescue operations at Watlab, Widipura and Tankpura”, he said.
“As the flood water has started receding the apprehension for water-borne diseases is rising. Now demand for filtered water has increased. Twenty RO plants with a capacity to filter 4 lakhs litre per day from Hyderabad and four RO plants from Delhi with a capacity to filter 1 lakh litre per day are being sent to Srinagar, today. Thirteen tonnes of water purifying tablets and six water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1.2 lakh bottles per day was sent earlier to Srinagar”, the spokesman said.
The Defence spokesman said that more heavy duty suction pumps are being airlifted from Jodhpur and Raipur. “Sewage pumps from Delhi have also been dispatched to the valley. Thirty generator sets of 3 to 5 KVA capacity have also been sent to Srinagar to augment continuous power supply in relief camps and field hospitals. Additional communication equipment of BSNL are being dispatched to restore the communication systems in the State.”
“Over 33,000 blankets are being airlifted to flood-affected area today, which were donated by Ministry of Textile, Red Cross Society and Government of Jharkhand and Punjab. Earlier 8,200 blankets and 1572 tents were provided to the flood victims”, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that 80 medical teams of the Armed Forces Medical Services are already operating in full swing. “Four Army Field Hospitals have been established in Avantipur, Pattan, Anantnag and Old Airfield where medical aid is being provided to the ailing people. Till now they have treated around 53,082 patients. Two additional fully equipped field hospitals with laboratory testing equipment facility have also been established in Srinagar. One rapid action medical team from Air Force has been deployed at Avantipur and Srinagar. This team has provided medical aid to 2,684 patients. More relief materials including tents, water bottles and food packets are being airlifted from Delhi, Arakonam and Amritsar”, he added.
The spokesman said that 80 transport aircraft and helicopters of Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps are continuing their efforts in rescue and relief operations. “Army has deployed around 30,000 troops for rescue and relief operations in the flood affected area. Nearly 6 lakh litres of water and over 1313 tonnes of food packets/cooked food and ration have already been distributed in the flood-affected areas”, he added.
“So far 2527 sorties were undertaken by the helicopters and aircraft of Armed Forces and 3673 tonnes of relief materials have been dropped by the Indian Air Force. A total of 224 boats of Army and 148 NDRF’s inflatable boats are actively involved in the rescue operation”, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that Armed Forces have also established 19 relief camps in Srinagar and Jammu region. In Srinagar region, camps were established at BB Cantt, Avantipur, Old Airfield, Sumbal, Chattargam and Jijamata Mandir, where thousands of rescued people are being sheltered. They are also being provided with food and other basic amenities.
“To restore the road connectivity, five task forces of Border Roads Organisation, which include 5700 personnel, have been deployed in Srinagar, Rajouri and Akhnoor. They have restored the road connectivity from Batote – Bijbehara. The connectivity from Srinagar to Sonamarg has been opened for all traffic, while, between Srinagar and Baramulla the road has been opened for light vehicles. Jammu to Poonch road has been cleared for traffic. On the Jammu – Srinagar highway, BRO personnel have cleared the road up to KM 172 (Ramsu) and work is in progress to clear fresh landslides in areas that were cleared earlier”, the spokesman added.
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