He asked for flood relief, had acid poured into his eyes

J P Yadav

Posted online: Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 0000 hrs

Victim from Bihar village says mukhiya and his men to blame; they allege that he pointed a pistol at them

DARBHANGA, AUGUST 24: A Villager who demanded food grain in flood relief from the local mukhiya pati was allegedly beaten up and had acid poured into his eyes.

His eyes bandaged, 29-year-old Shiv Kumar Sahni lies in his bed at the Darbhanga Medical College & Hospital. A landless sharecropper from the flood-ravaged Tomaria village in Madhubani district, he runs a small tea shop with his father, and has a wife and two daughters.

Last Tuesday, Shiv Kumar had walked up to the house of Kapeshwar Mukhia — who operates as panchayat head in proxy for his wife Rajkumari Devi — and demanded his share of food grain announced by the government in flood relief.

The enraged mukhiya pati (as husbands of mukhiyas running the show on behalf of wives are known) and his men first beat him and then poured acid in his eyes and mouth.

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A forgotten south, stuck in the depths of despair

August 25, 2007

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Two years after Katrina, most are still waiting for promised aid to rebuild, writes Ian Munro in New Orleans.

THERE was a time when it seemed New Orleans truly had died. The saltwater flood that surged out of Lake Pontchartrain settled into a metres-deep inland sea for three weeks, lapping the eaves of houses and killing most vegetation. Birds and insects fled, leaving a silent, lifeless landscape.

The receding flood's last gesture was to release a coating of silt over everything that dried to grey and flipped the world to monochrome. For weeks it failed to rain, and the grey remained. It was like walking into a silent black-and-white movie, say the people who witnessed it.

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Flood report blames drainage system

Press Association
Friday August 24, 2007 9:43 AM

A independent report on why Hull was so badly affected by flooding in June said the drainage system was totally overwhelmed.

The interim report, which was commissioned by the city council, said flood protection systems and drainage plans based on a one-in-30 year rainfall event such as this, may not be sufficient for low-lying cities like Hull.

It highlighted problems caused by different agencies - including the Environment Agency, council and water companies - responsible for different areas of the drainage, which are likely to replicated across the UK.

And it urged the Environment Agency to look at expanding its flood warning system from just river-based flooding to other kinds of potential deluge.

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Snakes enter homes, increasing South Asia flood torment

Reuters
Friday, August 24, 2007; 5:12 AM

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of snakes, forced out of their pits by flood waters, have entered villagers' homes in eastern India creating panic and adding to the torment caused by monsoon flooding, officials said on Friday.

Around 1,850 people have been killed -- scores of them due to snake bites -- since July when swollen rivers burst their banks, inundating huge areas in eastern India and Bangladesh.

The others have been killed by drowning, diarrhea and in house collapses.

In India's impoverished state of Orissa, poisonous snakes like kraits and cobras slithered into homes across dozens of villages in Balasore district after nearby forest areas were inundated, forcing villagers to flee with their cattle.

"We might survive the floods but there are numerous snakes crawling all over the place," said Bijoy Pradhan, a villager who fled his home to dry land, on Friday.

Two children died from snake bites overnight in the area as close to a million people remained marooned across the state.

Authorities in Orissa said they were also battling an outbreak of diarrhea that has killed six children since Thursday.

Millions of people are living in miserable conditions across eastern India, drinking polluted water as taps and wells have been submerged by flood waters, officials said.

ENDLESS MISERY

In Bihar state, one of India's poorest and most badly governed areas, authorities found 19 more bodies since Thursday, pushing the death toll to 420 since floods started in mid-July.

Authorities used loudspeakers to order villagers to evacuate homes in Muzaffarpur district as swelling rivers breached mud embankments in many places.

Angry villagers in Samastipur district stopped a train, fearing its movement could damage a weak embankment along the track, and assaulted officials who tried to stop them, witnesses and officials said.

"We are very afraid of more floods," said Kalavati Devi, a flood victim, justifying stopping the train.

In neighboring West Bengal state, two children drowned as fresh flooding forced thousands of people into relief camps.

Across the border in Bangladesh, hundreds have died over the past few weeks due to massive flooding, with thousands of people suffering from diarrhea.

Monsoon flooding occurs in the region each year but this year's particularly heavy rainfall has led to some experts blaming climate change as one possible cause.

Flash floods hit students

Statesman News Service
JAJPUR, Aug 24: Hundreds of students in several schools in the flood-hit Bari block of Jajpur district are out of school these days as the schools are closed since last two days due to flash floods.
Pratima Manjari Mallick (10), a Class V student of Bari Thakurpatana Primary school is now playing with his friends as she has not attended her school since Monday.

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Climate change, oil shale could sap water supply, senator warns
By BOBBY MAGILL The Daily Sentinel

Friday, August 24, 2007

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — As water managers from throughout Colorado agreed Thursday that water conservation is the key to dealing with climate change’s effects on the state’s water supply, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said oil shale development could use up whatever water remains in the Colorado River Basin.

Salazar, who spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at the Colorado Water Congress’ summer convention in Steamboat Springs, said later that he had heard oil shale development in northwest Colorado is likely to consume 100 percent of the available, or unappropriated, water in the entire Colorado River system.

But with disagreement over just how much water is left to be appropriated in the basin, he said he doesn’t know whether that level of water consumption from a future oil shale industry is acceptable.

A draft environmental impact study of the Bureau of Land Management’s commercial oil shale program, due later this year, is expected to address water consumption from oil shale development. But the House energy bill, expected to be debated and reconciled with the Senate energy bill next month, would delay the release of the study.

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The coming brouhaha over the Republican River

Dick Trail
Saturday, August 25, 2007
A while back I wrote concerning our republic type of government, differentiating it from a true democracy.

In a pure democracy, decisions are made strictly by majority vote. Merrill Ream wrote that I should mention that a republic form of government, by thinking representatives with moral backgrounds, will avoid the pure democracy's "tyranny of the majority" flaw. I think that the upwelling water fuss with Kansas makes a great illustration of that tyranny.

There is no doubt in my mind that if a statewide vote were taken to answer the question of who should pay Kansas a fine for overuse of water in the Republican River Basin the answer would be those who live in the Republican River Basin. That is us, you and me! Never mind that the fine was, or will be, generated by a compact signed in 1943 by the Nebraska Governor on behalf of all the people in the State of Nebraska.

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