Water-borne diseases claim 8 lives in Tripura; situation grim

AGARTALA, April 4: The Tripura government has admitted that at least eight persons died of water-borne diseases in the wake of a severe drought spell in the state. As all water sources in hilly interior areas dried up, tribal jhumia families were forced to drink contaminated and muddy water, which resulted in outbreak of gastroenteritis, hepatitis, measles, malaria in vast rural areas. Most affected are Chhamanu block, Gandacherra and Damburnagar block. Though the Rural Development Minister Jitendra Choudhury after his visit to the affected areas on Tuesday put the death toll at eight, visiting reporters of local press say the causality is much higher. However the state government has ordered all measures to be taken to arrest the situation from further deterioration. The council of ministers discussed the prevailing drought and health situation in detail and instructed the civil and health administrations to go all-out to meet the exigencies. The cabinet meeting was followed by two more high level meetings chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar to review the overall water, health, food and irrigation scenario. However, despite all possible steps the situation still tends to worsen with every passing day. Three medical teams are already organisation a series of medical camps in rural hilly areas but they find it an impossible task to cope with the increasing flood of patients, mainly children and aged persons. Two more medical teams have rushed to help the medicos already in service. The state government, in the meantime, has come under fire for ignoring newspaper reports. For the last one and half months all the local dailies were screaming of serious water and food crisis resulting in outbreak of diseases in interiors in the wake of severe drought. But till recently civil and health administrations tried to sweep deteriorating situation under the carpet. Even the Rural Development minister in the Assembly denied there was such a situation when opposition Tripura Upajati Juba Samity MLA Rabindra Debbarma drew his attention. As the administration took a callous attitude the situation turned for the worse. The disease outbreak took has epidemic turn and deaths were being reported from various parts for either starvation, dehydration or diseases. Finally, it was only on March 31 that Chief Minister, Manik Sarkar intervened and all machinery were geared up to meet the situation.