It had been two- three days, and still it was raining. I was there when a wall of my house collapsed. Fortunately, four lives were spared. Nobody got hurt. And it happened around midnight, 12:05 am and everyone was stunned.
The village is called Kerwartari. It comes under Jamui district which is 83.6 miles away from Patna. It takes 6 to 7 hours to reach the village by train.
The village is surrounded with a Jungle and also bounded with two rivers. During rainy season these two rivers become very dangerous for everyone including domestic animals.
I walked around the village in the morning and found damaged houses except two or three. Roof of the houses were leaking. Entire area had become fully muddy. Children were just playing on the road and enjoying the rain. “Did you eat something?”, I asked one of the children. He replied, “NO! Because we haven’t cooked yet. But mamma will go to shop and buy something for us”.
People of the village have mud houses and tiled roofs. If there is too much rain, the foundations of the house may get weakened.
Then I walked to the river which was already flowing above the danger level. I saw on the other side four cows were trying to cross the river. They wanted to come back to their homes. One of them had crossed and three were still in the river. They were struggling. Suddenly, the water increased and three of them were carried away by the river. Poor people, what could they do! They could only to cry for their animals.
For the village people, the rivers are the main problem. The unpredictable rains make the situation worse. The two rivers have impacted the lives of the villagers.
The floods have made it difficult to get food. The locals have to walk for almost 6 hours to reach the market because they have to use a different route. Because of the rains and flood, even that food is in short supply.
During rainy season it is very difficult to expect a happy life. The village has become like a remote area. It seems that government has abandoned the people of Kerwartari.
-John Marandi, Newsnet Intern
At such times words seem so hollow …all I can say is to keep the faith.