New Makeshift Hospital at Katchal

 Quite painfully because of complicated and archiac govt. regulations there was practically no land at Katchal island to construct a Hospital building. Since the island is covered with forest at all places, the forest department never allowed anything to be constructed anywhere; no matter if it required for a Hospital; no matter if there is something weird like a Tsunami having having swept the Hospital !. The Department of health and Department of Forest and Environment turned a blind eye and never provided any solution. I was getting impatient as the PHC staff was living a pathetic condition at the second makeshift school building.

After long discussion and lookout, a solution was afforded by the local relief office who suggested that some space can be spared inside the Agriculture Plantation at Japan Tikrey. Japan Tikrey was selected for the construction of the  future Primary Health Centre at Katchal.

Temporary Shed Framework

A casual visit to see things progressing

Structure almost complete

15th August @ Katchal

Event - 15th August 2005

We celebrated he independence day at Katchal.

We were still at Primary school Mildera

The Primary school "decorated" for he celebration

The flagpost was erected, and the flagpost foundation area was encircled with local leaf stems to decorate. The field was still wet from the rains of previous night.

Me - hoisting the Indian Flag

Settlement at Katchal

(Event Timeline between June 2005 to Nov 2005 - Post Tsunami)Settlement at Katchal

'Japan Tikrey' Nicobari settlement

Nicobari Tribal Settlement:



as

Nicobari youth being taught carpentry skills

SubCentre construction

(Event Timeline between June 2005 to Nov 2005 - Post Tsunami)

I was posted to Katchal ~6 months after Tsunami. Surprisingly there was no trace of any activity to start the construction of a Hospital or Health Sub centres.

When I enquired further with the Public Works Department (PWD) officials as to why there is no acitivity for a new Hospital building - the response which I got was something new of a kind. They said that it is no more the govt. machinery to construct the Hospital because one NGO has promised to do the task. Obviosly promise to make one Hospital in remote Tsunami affected area seems like is noble idea. Unfortunately the these NGO's believe in one mantra "Promise > Get media coverage > Forget it (Hmmm .. tasks are pending... who cares)".

 One NGO (i dont want to name) took there share and promised to construct a Hospital building  3 Subcentre were supposed to be contructed by a NGO.

Given below pictures tell the facts.

The NGO dumped some rusty white coloured sheets in June 2005.

SubCentre materials dumped

The NGO constructed the worst quality of building foundation (hmmm. should i call it foundation ??)

The cheap foundation

Almost half of the materials cannot be used for any purpose.
 

Quite substandard materials

Subcentre building materials dumped at another location (E-wall camp)

Last update : Till 2008 - there was no hospital - no subcentre building at katchal! [One temporary aluminium shed structure constructed by PWD was existing]

Friend @ Katchal

(Event Timeline between June 2005 to Nov 2005 - Post Tsunami)

This guy came from nowhere in the place we were staying at Katchal.

Doggy Pal

He would sit comfortably over the dashboard while i drived the vehicle.

Dog over the dashboard

The poor guy once got bitten by a water snake.

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Mildera - PHC Katchal

(Event Timeline between June 2005 to Nov 2005 - Post Tsunami)

Primary Health Centre was 'arranged' at Primary school building at Mildera - Katchal. Mildera village survived Tsunami because of its higher altitute from sea level.

Primary Health Centre Staff

The Hospital/Healthcare staff strength was sizable (30+) which included 1 Doctor (me), 2 Senior Pharmacists, 4 Trained Nurses, 1 ophthalmic Assistant, 1 Malaria Inspector, 2 ANMs and Support Staff.

Makeshift hospital @ school

Staff were living in tents, partly because there was no space inside the building and partly because of the frequent earthquakes. Tents were a good assurance that even if they fall on heads during the quakes, it never will be fatal.

The handfull of petty shops (less than 5 in total) were in Mildera, so even if there were lot of personal discomforts life was OK.

The makeshift Hospital Drug Store Room

To store the massive supply of medicines was trouble, Every available room was used to store medicines. The stock was good enough to support few thousands of people though Katchal had a meagre population of 1857 people!




The PHC Katchal (Primary school) Patient Ward

 

Old PHC @ Katchal

(Event timeline between June 2005 to Nov 2005)

Once settled at Katchal - I went to see the Hospital building that existed before 26/12/2004. A part of the building was still erect, though majority was gone with the Tsunami waves (26-12-2004). As an evidence the plaque still mentioned that the old building started operating in 1977.

The old plaque- Survived the waves!

Left over part of the building



Once the Kitchen of the Hospital

X Ray Machine- gone waste

Some Hospital Office stuff