“Poverty will make recovery difficult for affected people”

FIRST HAND ACCOUNT: SIKKIM UNIVERSITY TEAM TOURS EARTHQUAKE AFFECTED PARTS OF WEST SIKKIM
A team of faculty members and students of Sikkim University along with some members of Voluntary Health Association of Sikkim (VHAS) toured different village of three Gram Panchayats in Sombarey area under Soreng sub-division of West Sikkim in connection with relief work and assessment study related to the 18 September Earthquake. The team was in West Sikkim on 27 and 28 September.
Due to weak geological structure, the western part of Sikkim in general is prone to landslides, but the tremor, combined with heavy rainfall which followed in subsequent days, triggered landslides which have created havoc in some of the villages in the Sombarey administrative block.
In some cases, the landslides have fallen directly on the village and some are cut off and have become inaccessible.
The victims of this natural calamity are compelled to stay in different temporary shelter houses managed by panchayats.
The Sai Mandir Samiti in Daramdin has provided shelter to people whose village has almost been destroyed by the landslides which also took away the road leading to this village.
The University team reached these villages following a need-based assessment done by members of the Voluntary Health Association of Sikkim with their field NGOs like Navjyoti Kala Samiti, Community Health and Environment Conservation Society and Nagbeli Conservation Association who are actively working in these villages.
The people living in temporary shelters reported problems related to lack of sufficient food materials, drinking water, shelter, sanitation and health problems including fever, diarrhoea, cough, cold and skin diseases etc.
It was reassuring to note that doctors of nearby Primary Health Centres have visited them and provided basic treatment.
Preliminary investigation suggests that the scale and extent of damage caused and the depressed economic status of the affected people will make it difficult for the victims to recover to their normal lives in the near future.
It will require constant and multipronged backup programs to assist them economically, socially and physically to develop resilience to cope with future disasters of similar or higher intensity.
A multidisciplinary team from the University, along with non-government and community organizations, should collaborate on preparing future policy program modifications regarding transport, housing, water supply, sanitation and health care to minimise the losses in such calamities which are likely to happen in future in this unstable Himalayan terrain.
The need of the hour is for a scientific investigation in these landslide prone areas based on integrated geological, geotechnical and engineering analysis of the stability of landslides and mass wasting. Future efforts are required to manage the physical, social and psychological trauma which the people of this region have faced. A socio-demographic profiling of the affected population would be worthwhile.