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Effects and resilience to natural disasters in rural India

“Water scarcity leads to low productivity in the land, and livestock do not get sufficient water. We are always facing
problems for bathing, washing, and drinking water.” (Housewife, 27 years, IDI)
Other water sources, such as ponds, had dried up, and the water level in the river had also reduced. Participants in
Sundargarh stated that the lack of water disrupted the supply of electricity, which resulted in the irregular supply of
drinking water. Heatwaves and droughts have become more intense in recent years in Odisha as a result of less rainfall
and extreme temperatures in the area.
Communities reported multiple health problems resulting from natural disasters. Participants in Sundargarh particularly
noted an increase in incidence of sunstroke and deaths related to heatwaves. Participants listed a number of signs and
symptoms of health issues related to heatwaves such as dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, sweating, swelling,
fainting, dizziness, headache, body ache, vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. Heatwaves also created health problems for
people who worked outdoors to earn a living. School and college-going students experienced head reeling (vertigo)
and weakness, while pregnant women reported feeling uneasiness during heatwaves. Participants in Nuapada described
suffering from a number of ailments, such as malaria, anemia, malnutrition, diarrhea, and weakness during drought
periods. Participants reported that the health of migrants returning from destination states was affected. They also reported
that malaria was highly prevalent in the area, and an average of 30 patients were admitted to the hospital every month.
According to participants in Jagatsinghpur, floods, and cyclones caused diarrhea, malaria, jaundice, pneumonia,
vomiting, fever, cold and skin infection, and even led to deaths following an outbreak of diseases. With the inundation of
water, often contaminated with the presence of dead bodies and open defecation, people contracted diseases, and snake
bites. Other impacts of disasters included mental health problems. Some people developed psychological problems because
they did not have jobs and struggled to make ends meet as a result of droughts and heatwaves. Cases of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma have also been reported, particularly after the 1999 super cyclone in Jagatsinghpur.
“Many severe mental health problem cases were observed at that time. Many people were in mental trauma or
post-traumatic disorders after the 1999 cyclone. Some people did not even recognize their family members. We had
seen people in our area that could not recognize their family members, and when they saw us they called us by their
daughter’s name or some even said you are my daughter. The situation was so sad, you can’t imagine. It happened
due to the shock of super cyclone.” (FGD participant, Jagatsinghpur)
Psychological trauma, stress, and depression have also been reported, linked with continuous losses in agricultural
livelihoods due to natural disasters in the study sites in Odisha. People in Nuapada, Jagatsinghpur, and Sundargarh faced
financial hardship in seeking treatment and traveling to reach government hospitals. Although they received free medicine
from government hospitals for small ailments, in many cases, they said they had no option but to do medical tests and
purchase other medicines from private pharmacies/shops. The burden of extreme events exacerbated their debt, and out-
of-pocket health expenditures worsened their financial position. It was also seen that health facilities were not equipped,
and hospital staff was inadequate during cyclones and floods as large numbers of people visited hospitals at that time.
3.3. Community Resilience and Government Measures to Mitigate Natural Disasters

3.3.1. Community coping and adaptation strategies
Qualitative results showed that many coping and adaptation mechanisms were taken by communities to protect or
mitigate the natural disasters in the study areas (Figure 1). This figure described that natural disasters are reported to
affect agriculture, food security, livelihood, health, drinking water and sanitation, and the infrastructure of the state.
However, the governmental initiatives such as crop insurance, weather forecasting, compensation schemes, health camps,
etc. together with individual/community strategies such as changing diet, storing food grains, crop diversification, etc.
could build the resilience systems or cope with negative effects caused due to disasters.
Participants in Sundargarh undertook a variety of strategies to adapt to the rising temperature. They ate cucumber and
watermelon and drank water, rice water, lemon water, soft drinks, curd water, jaljiraa (spice drink), aam panna (mango
drink) and oral rehydration solution (ORS) supplied by Anganwadis (child-care centers). In rural Odisha, they poured
water on their heads to keep themselves cool, stored water in earthen pots, and wrapped vegetables in wet clothes. People
used fans/coolers, put up khus-khus (mats made of the woven roots of this perennial grass can keep out heat when bound
with cords and hung in the doorway), and damped the door screens; and if there was no electricity in the afternoon, they
damped their cotton mattresses. Some other coping mechanisms included covering asbestos roofs with straw, sprinkling
it with water, and repairing tiles to keep the sun out. Those with cattle sprayed water on the roof of their cattle shed
when the temperature rose. Participants mostly avoided venturing out during the scorching heat. If it was essential to

8 International Journal of Population Studies | 2020, Volume 6, Issue 1