A number of people were also wading through neck deep water carefully carrying whatever they could save from their houses. There was so much water all around, that if I did not know that there were field and houses 20 days earlier, I would have thought this was just a huge lake. The water in this area had submerged hundreds of villages. The irrigation canal bund was the only area not under water. And all the people from these villages had set up small temporary huts (“machaan”) all along the 15 km canal bund!

We heard that water in one of the submerged villages had receded and we could go into the village. To get to this village - Bajanpatti - we had to travel 4 km on the canal bund. And what a crowded canal bund it was!

The bund itself was only about 2 meters across and the local people had themselves set up small huts in every little space possible.

The people were so self reliant here - possibly because very little government or external support reaches these village anyway. With whatever little they could scramble together they had made huts and were not only surviving the disaster but also helping each other survive it!

This 4 km bike ride on the canal finally helped me understand the scale of the disaster. There were more than 5000 such small villages distributed all across 6 districts. A small number of affected people were living in camps - but a very large number was still living near their homes, in small pockets that no one was yet reaching to provide support or relief.

At the end of the canal ride, we took a boat and then entered into Bajanpatti village. There was a terrible smell in the air - because of the silt the Kosi river had swept into the village. Several huts had been fully washed away, others still had knee deep water.

The huts were the water had cleared were full of silt and floor was like a swamp. Place one foot and it sucks you in. It will take at least 10-15 days for the water to fully dry up and after that the floor will develop cracks! And everywhere there was stagnant water where colonies of insects and germs were breeding.

The local people were so happy we had come to see their village - they just would let us go without seeing every house. They said this was the first time someone from outside was coming to see what happened to them. They were surviving because one of the villagers had managed to stock up some rice which everyone else was now sharing. Only after we promised them that we would come back again, did they let us go! (The next day with help from Goonj we ensured that a relief kit with rations and clothes were provided to the villagers.)

At the next village - Baddhi - we again found a similar situation. From Batti, we traveled to the next district - Madhepura. Here even the district headquarters was under water!