The first casualty after the tsunami disaster was drinking water. We ran helter-skelter to this school when the waters rushed in early in the morning,” recalls Daivani, sitting on a mat spread out on the grassy patch in the front yard of St Mary’s High School. The school now functions as a camp for villagers of Colachel in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu.
By Sreedevi Jacob
The first casualty after the tsunami disaster was drinking water. We ran helter-skelter to this school when the waters rushed in early in the morning,” recalls Daivani, sitting on a mat spread out on the grassy patch in the front yard of St Mary’s High School. The school now functions as a camp for villagers of Colachel in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu.
For the first couple of hours, nobody was bothered about drinking water or even getting to a clean toilet. We were just too shocked and immobilized by fear! By afternoon, however, children had begun asking for water and many of us women wanted to use a toilet. But water was dirty and hard to come by. There were too few toilets in the school. Finally, we women had to go to the homes of our nearest relatives – only to return as quickly as we could. Some of us took our children but many of us had to leave them behind, requesting others in the camp to keep an eye on them. It was not easy as even some of the elder children refused to let go of their mothers.” Daivani said.
Father Stanley, in-charge of relief operations at the camp, agrees with her. The first two days were horrible! Fortunately we had a few water tanks and a few toilets but these were grossly inadequate. It was as if all the school toilets and water tanks, sufficient for our students, had suddenly been dwarfed by the sheer number of people who took refuge here! Ten thousand people belonging to some 1500 odd families are taking shelter here.”
It was after another two days that the situation began to improve and is now comfortable. Both Daivani and Fr. Stanley agree that they were relieved when Oxfam’s water and sanitation team stepped in. I was worried about diseases cropping up here because everyone was turning a blind eye to simple cleanliness and sanitation,” said Fr. Stanley. Then Oxfam volunteers met me and we spoke at length about what was immediately required. Within 2-3 days they had built 10 water tanks and 20 toilets! They have done wonderful work and we want them to continue their response work here.”
Devanand Londhe, Oxfam’s volunteer and a water and sanitation engineer, incharge of providing the basic facilities to the camp, recalled, When we visited the St Mary’s camp two days after it was set up, we found that the water available was insufficient and of poor quality. The condition was nowhere near the international SPHERE standards fixed for providing hygiene facilities, waste management, drainage and excreta disposal in an emergency.” Londhe used to work with Oxfam and now works with RedR, an organization that trains engineers – also from the government – in water & sanitation in times of disaster.
Londhe and his team have also constructed platforms to wash utensils as well as clothes and put an adequate number of dustbins. Being a large school, there was lot of space at St. Mary’s,” explained Londhe. With Fr. Stanley, it was decided to set up 10 drinking water tanks with a capacity of 5000 litres each. There were already four municipality tanks in the camp. Each of the tank carried 1000 litres. The school’s two tanks had capacities of 20,000 litres and 5000 litres respectively but these were so dirty that they could not be used for anything! So the team also cleaned up these tanks and since all the existent tanks were on the ground level, the water they held was earmarked for washing.
The tanks that Oxfam set up were kept on a raised platform, fitted with taps, so that people would not touch the water directly. “We made arrangements in such a way that each person could use 15 litres of water every day. Similarly, the municipality was requested to supply water every three hours, instead of doing it thrice a day,” said Londhe.
Stella, staying at the St. Mary’s camp said, Earlier going to the toilet here was very difficult because apart from the less water, we had to form long queues and wait for our turn. Many of us made our little ones, even girls, defecate in the open. It was all very embarrassing but there were no options. Thankfully, it has now all changed.”
In addition to the 25 latrines that existed for 10,000 people at St Mary’s school, Oxfam set up 20 more latrines – 10 for men and 10 for women. Tar sheet and coconut planks were used for the sides, and the base was a combination of wood and tin. They are made in such a fashion that they can be dismantled and set up again wherever temporary shelters are built for the affected people,” said Londhe.
At the common cooking place, water would stagnate, also because both the cooking and the washing of utensils were being done at the same place. So Oxfam constructed washing platforms for this purpose. Two dustbins were earmarked for dumping kitchen waste. All the wastewater has been channelised.
Understandably Fr. Stanley is happy. Managing 10,000 people is no easy task. I appreciate Oxfam volunteers. They managed the operations so well that neither did we have complaints about lack of water and sanitation facilities nor was there an outbreak of diseases as warned by the UN and the WHO.”
The people in the camp are also glad. Francisca, her baby playing with some cloth nearby, recounted, The municipality brought water twice or thrice a day, but there were just few tanks and we had to stand in queue to wash our hands. Many a time there was no water for the toilet. This often led to quarrels amongst us. Moreover, by the time all of us had washed our hands, the water would be dirty and not fit for drinking because we would have dipped our hands in it,” she recounts candidly. Then she quickly adds, But now we feel safe and taken care of.”
Oxfam has also built tanks and toilets and provided dustbins in two other camps – the Muslim Jamat and the Sugandham Thirumana Mandapam camp, catering to 1300 and 3000 people respectively. It took only four days for us to complete all the activities in all the three camps,” said Londhe. We will be glad to give our technical support to other NGOs as well.”
Fr Stanley added, I think the people here have learnt some clean habits from the Oxfam volunteers here. That is a step forward!”
