‘Mystery fever’: How flood compounded woes of Kutch villagers already grappling with remote location, inadequate infrastructure

Due to the floods that ravaged the area and cut off its only road, villages such as Bekhada, Mindhiyari, Chakrai and Chamra could not access the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Panandhro village, let alone the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Dayapar.

“They reached the hospital only on September 1 by when it was too late,” said Ramdhan Jat, Sarpanch of Mindhiyari Juth Gram Panchayat, about the deaths of two brothers from Bekhada village who succumbed to the illness.

Collector Amit Arora said the apparent shift in climate demonstrated by increased rainfall had led to a change in infrastructural needs. “Earlier, there used to be 18-20 inches of rainfall in Kutch; this has increased to more than 30-35 inches in the past five years. All the road infrastructure here was built keeping in mind the arid climate of the region. Causeways were built instead of minor bridges. However, these causeways have begun getting flooded now,” he said.

“Now we have found about 48 dips in roads where heightened infrastructure like bridges are required because the pattern of rainfall has changed and villages are getting cut off every year. Apart from the 48 areas, more are being assessed and the survey is underway,” he added.

Bekhada and other small villages are located 140 to 160 km from Bhuj and it takes over four hours to reach the city due to poor connectivity. District health officials had earlier told The Indian Express that the remoteness of the villages and lack of proper road infrastructure mean that the patients cannot reach a tertiary healthcare centre in “the golden hour” of treatment.

Even at the Dayapar CHC, the facilities are far from ideal.

Husen Rayma, a former member of the Lakhpat Taluka Panchayat, said, “There is only one doctor available at the Dayapar CHC. The nearest private hospitals are in Nakhatrana which is 60 km from Dayapar. But people directly prefer to go to Bhuj, 110 km away.”

Sarpanch Ramdhan Jat said, “Dayapar CHC has sanctioned posts of three doctors but only one AYUSH practitioner is posted there…

sometimes, the private ambulances refuse to ferry patients to Bhuj because of the difficult terrain and bad infrastructure. We have sought a nearer health centre that can help people during the months of monsoon when we are virtually cut off from everyone
else.”

A state government official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Kutch is an absolutely cut-off region. Nobody wants to come here due to the distance from the rest of the state. The area is also very sparsely distributed. The district administration has requested that the population-based parameters to set up CHCs be relaxed and be kept on the basis of distance so that proper medical care can be made available to people in remote areas.”

Dr Ravindra Fulmali, the Chief District Health Officer (CDHO) of Kutch, remained unavailable for comment.