The 2018 monsoon season caused the worst flooding that Kerala India had seen in the last 100 years. Starting in June, the state received 457% more rain than usual, causing massive flooding and landslides. Over 5 million people were affected, with the death toll exceeding 500, 140 reported injuries and 15 people reported missing. The number of damaged houses exceeded 23,000 and more than 1.4 million people were being housed in relief camps.
Many wells were either completed destroyed or were fully flooded, causing their water to become contaminated. Communities were left to use either this water, gather it from a nearby stream, or use unreliable piped water sources. With so many water sources destroyed and thousands of families living in relief camps, the possibility of an outbreak of waterborne disease was high.
1.4 MILLION PEOPLE DISPLACED
5 MILLION AFFECTED
MORE THAN 500 PEOPLE KILLED
GlobalMedic has delivered relief programming in India for many years and has emergency water purification solutions stored in country with our local partners. Through our partners, GlobalMedic immediately distributed 100,000 water purification tablets and installed 5 AP700 Community Water Filters which provided clean water for up to 1,000 people a day.
We then deployed our Rapid Response Team to expand our response and deliver more aid. The RRT worked to install 10 more AP700 Community Water Filters at communal water points like schools, clinics and relief shelters to provide clean drinking water at the community level.
Many of the hardest hit communities were rural villages that were spread widely over a large area and it did not make sense in these cases to install a Community Water Filter as there was no communal water source. In these areas, GlobalMedic worked to distribute more than 3,900 Household Water Purification Units as well as 1,210 Hygiene Kits to help protect families’ health and provide a sense of normalcy for the crisis-affected population. More than 10,000 people were supported through GlobalMedic’s response in Kerala.
