Church agencies focus on flood relief to millions

It is one of the worst floods to hit South India and Church-based relief agencies are wasting no time in mobilizing aid to the stranded and homeless.

According to news reports, heavy rain in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra has displaced close to 1.5 people and has killed at least 280 people.

Christian agencies and partners of Action by Churches Together (ACT) have begun distributing aid and rendering shelter to the survivors whose homes had been wiped out.

ACT member Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) has already started a feeding programme in the flood affected areas through their partners in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

"CASA staffs are currently in the area carrying out an assessment of the situation. A preliminary appeal requesting funds for cooked food, basic household articles, dry rations and plastic sheeting will be issued shortly. CASA is pre-financing this response," an ACT report said.

Also, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI) plans to respond to the floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh by providing emergency relief food and non food items through its church members.

The Lutheran World Service, India (LWSI) has also swung into action to help the thousands displaced.

Officials yesterday said 170 had died in Karnataka state and another 37 in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The incessant rain had submerged towns, villages and cut transport and communications.

In Karnataka, one million people were homeless, of which more than 350,000 people had taken shelter in 1,200 relief camps in the worst-hit northern districts, H.V. Parashwanath, secretary of the state's disaster monitoring agency, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We have commenced a survey to identify the remaining homeless for resettling and rehabilitation," he told the news agency.

Scores of helicopters were seen dropping food and drinking water to thousands of marooned villages. Also personnel from India's National Disaster Response Force were deployed and officials said hundreds of doctors were labouring to halt the outbreak of disease.

"We are deploying medical teams in the affected areas to prevent the occurrence of epidemics," S Subramanyam, special commissioner for disaster management in Andhra Pradesh's capital Hyderabad, said.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry has allocated an amount of Rs 139.36 crore to the Calamity Relief Fund for Karnataka for 2009-10.

Weather experts have blamed a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal as the cause for the torrential rain.