Bahraich (Uttar Pradesh): In the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, barely two hours away from the state capital Lucknow, floods and excessive rains have long spelled doom for locals. Each year brings in excessive flooding, leading to large-scale destruction in villages and the loss of life. As the gigantic river of Ghagra – now named Saryu – crosses over, several acreages of farmlands and houses are affected.
Saronda village is one of the 400 villages in the region which battles floods every year. Small bamboo huts and a vast white stretch of land surround the village with a narrow stream of water with no sight of fields at all. There’s hardly any motorable road.
“There used to be homes and fields here. The water is shrinking our village, season after season. Not sure we will have this land under our feet where you are standing by next season,” says Sonu of Bahraich, who is in his 20s, and works in Mumbai.
As Bahraich goes to the polls, the hope for any change is bleak. Amid the floods, last year chief minister Yogi Adityanath was seen carrying out an aerial survey of the region. But for the residents of the village nothing has changed on the ground.
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When floodwater ravages the village beginning in July until the end of the monsoon season, several take shelter on their roofs with no surety about food, clean drinking water, or any arrangement for a toilet.
“My children did not even get one meal last season. The uniforms distributed to us were taken off of children after a photo-op. Many of us can’t afford a toilet and wherever there is one, it gets flooded when the rains lash our village,” describes Reena who calls Saronda her home.
Amid the floods, no ambulances reach the villages, forcing pregnant women to arrange cars or use boats to visits doctors.
In a hut, Preeti stands next to her two children, both under two years. She explains, “I have had two pregnancies amid the floods. It was extremely difficult. We have to do everything in the water. It is the way of life, but too many young children have died, and many fall sick as we struggle to live this life.”
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Adding, Neelam says, “Women bear the brunt of it all. We struggle to find spaces to cook. We walk far off to relieve ourselves. We have forgotten the meaning of privacy.”
The Ghagra river stretches between the villages on one end and the town on the other. Villagers say that while measures have been taken to ensure that floodwater does not enter the town, nothing has been done for them.
Sonu says, “We want for something to be done for our village and not just ours but for other villages too. Our village is shrinking, there are no more fields. For officials, our lives have no value because we do not hail from a city or the town. We are villagers and our lives to them are disposable.”
For the people of the region, their problem is easily solvable if the government desires, however, their hopes for a better future are fading.
“Nothing has happened. We are tired of bringing this up, for we know that we will be back to square one in the next few months as the monsoon starts. We relieve ourselves on streets, scramble for food and water. This is our reality, village after village,” laments Prem Kumar who hails from the neighbouring Purva.
The only time the villages of Bahraich and their concerns made headlines was back in 2014 when the floods had caused mass destruction in the region alongside the water reaching several other districts in the belt including Gonda, Balrampur and Shravasti.
Rina adds, “No one turned back and saw our situation. We are not on the map of the government, the Sarkar sleeps. Every time we have raised our voice, we have been threatened, abused or silenced. The authorities will stop our husbands in the fields and warn them to ask us to shut up.”
