High Water! |
Things have been drastic here with floods of major levels coming down from the high plateaux that surround this area - if it rains up there it can take up to four days to arrive here and if it rains in several places at once there is a considerable backup and river levels rise without there necessarily being any rain here. But there was torrential rain here too and all around us, the result was flooding of the highest level since 1978 and major infrastructure damage. The water levels are going down and the mopping up operations have started (written Feb 17, 2007). Kapani Camp where we have been billeted was the one camp in the area that did not get flooded nor isolated so all the owners and managers of the other camps came and stayed here. In some respects it was fun and in others it was horrid - some were weeping into their cups of tea at night and look at financial ruin, others just have a hell of a lot of work to do and little faith that the official response will be adequate and fast enough. If the government insists upon road contractors, for instance, completing their already started contracts elsewhere before starting reparations here means that there is no chance of anything being done in time for the next season - damage to the roads is extensive. We have had days with no power because pylons have fallen into the river because of changing courses of the river having undermined their foundations. The infrastructure already enormously affects medicine (to its detriment) and my work has not been unaffected. The dreaded outbreak of cholera has not occurred but the malaria is terrible early in the season - we have two more months of the rainy season to run till the hot days and cold nights starts. We didn't stay long enough last time to experience it.
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