Indifferent attitude of people’s representatives and local administration to their woe has only added to their anguish.

Their habitat, if you still dare to call it so, has remained under water for over six months not due to flood waters of river Barak and its tributaries but because of want of a drainage system that would have drained out the excessive rain water or spill over of the flooded fields around. Much to their horror, the villagers hardly see any immediate relief from the harrowing condition.

Around 1500 people from the area including school children have to cross a 200-meter long precarious bamboo bridge resting on the structure of a lone bamboo everyday to reach the main road. Women have to trudge through it several times a day.  Imagine what happens when one has to cross it at the darkness of a moonless night. Poisonous reptiles and other such water creatures are omnipresent in the area at night where electricity is still a distant dream.  

“It has become difficult for the people to live in the place,” says Anjan Das who got his left arm fractured after he had fallen down from the dangerously poised bridge one night.  Mind you, his was not the only such incident. Many women and children too have slipped off this lifeline (bridge) of the area as they could not balance themselves while trying to cross the narrow stretch of bamboo over the water.

“Unrelenting water logging for the last seven months has made our life an agony which is no longer worth living in such an adversity. Our eight bighas of agricultural land have been destroyed due to prolonged inundation. Agriculture being our only means of sustenance, we are scared to think about what the future holds for us,” said 65-year-old Amar Kumar Das.

The villagers have plenty of deadly mosquitoes for their company 24x7 for their extreme discomfort because of the omnipresent water.  Santosh Das, 47, businessman rues, “We can hardly sit in comfort after the dusk outside the protection of a mosquito net. It is not possible to be under the net all the time. Countless mosquitoes bite us every day and we have to bear with it as there is no way to escape the suffering.” He further pointed out there are so many families in the area who do not have mosquito nets and suffer from different diseases like malaria and dengue. This has posed a grave problem of health and hygiene to the residents of the area.

Many women and children too have slipped off this lifeline (bridge) of the area as they could not balance themselves while trying to cross the narrow stretch of bamboo over the water.

The school and college going students, boys and girls, often have to take the risk of trudging through the dirty, polluted water around. They, like other inhabitants have to take the problem in their stride. “As we have to cross through the polluted stagnant water most of the time, almost everyone here is suffering from skin diseases. So many of us have developed irritating red circles on our body,” said Suraj Das, a class VI student.

People of the area alleged that the MLA of Katigorah constituency, Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiya has not taken any initiative to mitigate their sufferings despite repeated complaints and representations made to him. Monoara Begum, ZPC member, maintains frustrating silence over the issue. The villagers say, “The MLA has visited the area three times and on every occasion he has assured us to take adequate steps to flush out the stagnant water from the area, but his assurance is yet to be translated into a reality even as we have been made to live in the agony.”

 According to Nabendu Shekhar Nath, a social worker and the president of Katigorah Development Committee, “It is most unfortunate that the weaker section of people have to survive in such a difficult condition despite all the talks of development.” Nath said that he along with the affected people had met the circle officer of Katigorah, Khaleda Sultana, briefed her about the problems of Sealtek and tried impressed upon her the need to construct a culvert in the area to drain out the water. The circle officer assured him that she would take up the matter with the higher authorities for remedial measures. But, no action has been initiated in the ground till date.

The condition is such that water has spilled into some houses. One has to see for oneself to believe it. The agony and misery of people of Sealtek raise questions about all those much trumpeted development schemes and projects to ameliorate the socio-economic condition of the backward and poorer sections of society and the utilization of huge funds allotted by the Centre for the purpose. Where are all these money spent? It is a riddle for the people of Sealtek.