Anchal Kumari watched helplessly as thousands of others were displaced by the floods around her village in the Madhubani district of Bihar state in northern India.
Ms. Kumari, a voluntary aid worker related to Oxfam, typically distributed aid materials to communities affected by mistakes like this.
“But this time we don’t have any support material to distribute to other people and I find it so frustrating,” the 20-year-old told the BBC.
“People live here a depressing life and ask me why they don’t get help and I have no answer.
Bihar is one of the states most affected in India by the continuous monsoon floods. The country has noted more than 850 deaths and tens of millions of displaced people across the country.
Monsoon rains last from June to September and are a daily anguish for large numbers of people in South Asian countries. Many parts of India this month experienced rains above the maximum, some up to 60%, according to the Indian Meteorological Department. more than 1,300 people have been killed and around 25 million have been affected in the region, according to the government and humanitarian agencies.
“People in my community sleep on the roads and other upper floors to avoid flooding for more than 4 weeks,” Kumari said.
“And it’s not just our organization. There are several others who would have been active in a scenario like this, but this time they couldn’t do anything. “
Humanitarian agencies say Covid-19 restrictions have seriously hampered and slowed relief operations in many areas affected by flooding and monsoon landslides in South Asia. Spaces.
“Most of our relief materials are stored in warehouses and if those warehouses are in containment spaces declared by the authorities, then it becomes very difficult to unload them,” said Pankaj Anand, program manager at Oxfam India.
And even where materials were available, chains of origin were interrupted through closures, according to agencies. After resolving all these logistical difficulties and achieving the affected areas, they were asked to quarantine, he said.
“What we’re doing is agility, we have to be on the floor to provide relief within 24 to 48 hours,” he said, “but Covid’s restrictions have painfully slowed everything down and on many occasions this has also been impossible. “
Providing shelter had also become more confusing with the coronavirus pandemic, with up to 3 times more area than the same person to adapt to social estating regulations.
Some aid agencies in Nepal have said government passes aimed at allowing them to circumvent restrictions have not worked.
“We have authorization documents from the relevant government agency, but the workers’ security staff on the floor have no idea what we’re doing and they’re just arresting us,” said Dipak Chapagain, coordinator of Volunteer Corps Nepal.
“There is a total disconnect between the government company that regulates us and the safety body of workers who enforce the closure and other Restrictions of Covid,” He said. Chapagain.
He said he and his team had recently been detained by police for about six hours while on their way to supply relief materials to families displaced by a large landslide in northeastern Kathmandu.
About 230 more people have died and another 60 are missing in Nepal due to landslides caused by the monsoon, according to the Interior Ministry.
And where relief materials are scarce, other people in need may find the need to arrive when he arrives.
“In some places, as soon as we arrive, others gather in gigantic numbers without wearing a mask or maintaining social distance,” said Nanida Saikiya of Satra, a non-governmental organization that provided limited relief material to flood-displaced communities in India’s Dorang. Assam State District.
“Some of our colleagues have been very involved with coronavirus transmission and many of them were left off those days,” he said.
Community members in several flood-affected spaces in Assam said they were still waiting for help 3 weeks after the worst floods of the season.
Lal Banu, a resident of the village of Oporia in the Dorang district of Assam, was unable to buy anything to buy for the flood season this time because no one bought his vegetables out of concern for the coronavirus.
This left him money, and when the floods came, his space and belongings were razed.
“That’s why I want so much help materials, but I haven’t won anything, either from the government or the humanitarian agencies,” he said in a loud voice.
“During the last monsoons, they were there for us, but this time no one came. “
Just across the border from Assam is Bangladesh, where about five million more people have been displaced by the floods, according to the Red Cross. Overcrowding of humanitarian personnel is not unusual on embankments and transit shelters.
“It’s been a more complicated delight than past monsoons,” said Azmat Ulla, director of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Bangladesh.
“But our volunteers are from local communities and this has helped us conduct relief operations. For organizations sending rescue personnel from the center, it’s been very difficult,” he said.
Authorities in the region said they were coordinating with their local administrations to succeed on the challenges.
“We have been in constant contact with our national crisis control government in other Indian states,” said GVV Sarma, secretary of India’s National Disaster Management Authority.
“We have used our cyclone centers to house flood-affected communities and the number of these shelters is twice as high as Covid-19 social distance guidelines. “
Other rains, some very heavy, are forecast for next week in various parts of the region.
India’s Central Water Commission indexed 26 sites on Monday as severe floods, most commonly in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. Beyond the immediate danger of flooding, there is a danger of disease.
“After maximum flooding, affected communities can also suffer from waterborne diseases such as cholera,” said Regmi of the International Federation of the Red Cross, India.
“The concern is whether other people will not be treated if there is no source of products such as medicines and if hospitals, which have already outperformed Covid-19 patients, cannot treat them either,” he said.