Community helping villagers tide over crisis in Doaba region

As the adverse impact of floods in Punjab has been on a rise, the community strength has become more visible. The floods in Beas have already devastated 123 villages across Doaba region. The influence of overflowing Sutlej has just begun to show. In Dhaingarpur village of Balachaur (Nawanshahr), Sangowal village of Nakodar and Gidderpindi of Shahkot, the community has is showing its solidarity standing for a common cause to ward off the river water crisis.

Though the administration is on toes and officials are working till late night at sites where river bank embankments are getting weak, it is the community which is working at all these places. As the Sutlej waters were released from the Bhakra dam on Monday evening, Dhaingarpur emerged as vulnerable point as villagers, who were on patrol 24x7, noticed that river bank embankments was getting weak.

The villagers sounded an alarm through social media and contacts and within a short span of time, hundreds of men mostly youth made it to the site. Even as it kept getting dark, no one in the area slept. They kept filling sacks of earth and sand, made crates of these bags and kept aligning them along the bundh to strengthen it. They even felled trees felled in the surrounding areas to ensure that the river, which was in spate, did not cut edges of the embankment and the released waters passed off without any hinderance.

After the passage of two days, the collative effort started bearing fruit. The water released from dam passed off. Despite this, the never-say-die spirit of the community remains alive. The villagers have not yet stopped working even as officials of the district administration say that things are completely under control. Since there is a curve at the affected point, villagers have ensured that they make the curve so strong that it is able to ward off any further release of waters from the Bhakra.

Likewise, even after a temporary 100 metre bundh projection at Sangowal village of Nakodar (50 km ahead of the Dhaingarpur) gave off last morning, villagers are keeping their “Chardi kala” spirit alive. Dr Navjot Dahiya, who is actively working at the site, said, “Though the Army was deployed this morning, residents had already arranged JCBs, poclain machines and other required machinery and started to reconstruct the projection to save their villages.”

CT Group stands in solidarity with Punjabis

CT Group Jalandhar teams have been working at affected villages of Alhiwal, Ahli Kalan, Mand Hussainpur, and Bulle. For the past three days, they have been distributing essential relief items such as sanitary pads, torches, food supplies, baby food and care items, medicines for cattle, and cattle feed among villagers. The participation of students is completely voluntary.

The volunteers from the institute also visited villages of Nangal Jiwan, Allowal Dherian, and Malri Sahib along Nakodar Road. This initiative was undertaken to extend immediate relief and support to families facing difficult conditions due to waterlogging and displacement. Director of Admissions, Dr Vaneet Thakur, along with faculty members and student volunteers, personally visited the flood-affected areas to ensure timely assistance reached the needy. Relief supplies, including sanitary pads, bread, rusk, biscuits, medicines, tarpaulins, and clothes were distributed to ensure basic health and hygiene, as well as to provide comfort to the affected people during this challenging period.

Likewise, Jalandhar-based NGO Amrit Caregivers organised seven medical camps at various locations across Punjab. “We have been checking patients and giving them medicines. We have also been providing medicines for fungal infections, cold, cough, snake bites etc. Procuring anti-venoms for snake bite patients has become a big challenge. We had to arrange injections for a patient from Ludhiana today. The cost of anti-venom injections to be administered to a patient comes out to be Rs 7,000 to 8,000,” said Dr Ruchi Singh Gaur from the NGO.

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