Slum people, hit worse by the floods, were faced with fuel shortages and the rocketing price of kerosene. Electricity and water supplies were blocked in most areas and what water there was, was being sold at a very high prices making it inaccessible for the poor and lower middle class people.
 
In Bhimwadi slum in South Mumbai - the devastating floods triggered mass displacement, though poor people remained wary of moving away, fearful that their land would be taken.
 
Water borne diseases were rampant and some doctors warned people to take precautions against the bacterial disease leptospirosis. Some of the people were in knee-deep flood water for several days.

Children were especially affected. Flood and unrelenting rain tested their resilience. Fever, diarrhoea and chest infections were rampant.

 

 

ActionAid worked with the worst affected people through its partners in Mumbai and the two districts of Ratnagiri and Raigarh.

We provided immediate relief such as food, mobile health services as well as preventive measures against infections and the spread of diseases related to worsened sanitation in the area.  
 
At the same time ActionAid took action to mobilise civil society organisations along with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Nirmala Niketan and Times Foundation. Such initiatives were aimed at creating pressure on the local administration and the government to do more.

 

"Focusing on the resilience of the people - while a good thing - has misled international aid agencies and hampered relief efforts on the ground," ActionAid’s Emergencies and conflict advisor, Unnikrishnan told Reuters.