India floods raise questions about precautions

But federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the state governments were doing the best they could.

"Tasks like these are always formidable. Whatever the state governments are doing is according to the circumstances. The more that is done, the better," he told reporters, while promising more money for disaster preparedness.

India's problem appears to be one of political will, not resources. The country is much richer than Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people that lies on the Ganges River delta and has been repeatedly ravaged by floods.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who toured the flooded areas by helicopter Tuesday, asked the federal government for some $790 million in assistance. Of that, nearly all was earmarked for compensation and reconstruction, with little for prevention.

What little preventive steps have been taken have come from international aid groups like the British aid agency Oxfam and U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services, which have been working on a community level to prepare villages for the annual flooding.

Working with local groups, they have mapped out villages to look for weak points, found places of refuge and set up rescue teams "so they can better prepare for the next time disaster comes," said Jennifer Poidatz, the head of Catholic Relief Services in India.

But their efforts are on a small scale, she said, and the government needs to take greater steps to really make an impact.

"Getting that larger commitment is critical," Poidatz said. "Systems exist on paper but implementation does not happen for various reasons."

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