Dear Friends of Ladakh,

The flash floods of August 5th-6th, caused largely by cloudbursts around Leh town, is the worst natural disaster in the history of the region. The worst affected were parts of Leh town and a settlement colony near Choglamsar village, 10 KMs from the town, though many villages, largely in the Khalse block, also suffered heavy losses.  Hundreds of houses have been totally washed away and many more severely damaged. Farmers in many villages have reported that all, or part of their fields, have been completely washed away by the floods, along with the standing crops. 200+ people have been confirmed dead and 500+ are still missing (most of whom are feared dead; either washed away in the Indus river or still buried under the remains of the houses, especially in the Tashi Gatsal area in Choglamsar that has been largely razed to the grounds and is filled with 4-6 feet wall of slush, making retrievals difficult).

The magnitude of the disaster is too huge for the local people and the administration to be of a substantial help to those who have lost their family members and houses without external help, and hence this appeal for help in rehabilitation of the flood affected families. While any amount of financial help can’t bring back their loved ones, it could definitely help in our mission of getting back a basic shelter for some of those who lost their houses completely before the onset of the harsh winters in less than two months from now.

Even though LEDeG has no experience or expertise of working on disaster and rehabilitation, we realised that the situation is too harsh for us to just sit and do nothing and hence we jumped into the immediate relief activities, which we are still engaged with, and have decided to do our bit for the long term rehabilitation, especially of the marginalised and the poorest amongst the flood affected.

LEDeG’s current Strategy -

building energy efficient, disaster resilient two-room units: LEDeG has worked on promoting renewable energies and reducing the dependence on fossil fuels for more than two decades. We have set up micro hydro and solar power units in the remote off-grid villages and promoted an array of solar devices targeted at reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. We also brought to the region the concept of energy efficient buildings using passive solar technology. We have built hundreds of such buildings across the region, from Zanskar to Nubra and Changthang to Drass. Given the current realisation of our susceptibility to natural disasters, LEDeG plans on bringing in basic flood and earthquake resilience features in the future houses it builds so that we are better prepared towards similar disasters in the future.

Even though our needs assessment with the flood affected communities continue, as of now, LEDeG plans on using most of the funds that we manage to raise in building basic two-room sets along the aforementioned principles of energy efficiency and disaster preparedness.

You could either make a wire transfer to our bank account, especially created for the flood relief or post us your checks/DDs. Do send us a mail at ladakhfloods(at)ledeg(dot)org with the transaction details (transaction number, amount of donation, Bank name etc.) and your contacts

Bank details:

1.    For transfers from within India:

LEDeG Disaster Relief Fund
A/C no. 31329098516
State Bank of India, Leh Branch
IFSC/RTGS/NEFT Code: SBIN0001365

2. For funds from outside India:

Ladakh Ecological Development Group
A/C no. 10942161521
State Bank of India, Leh Branch
MICR Code 194002011
Swift Code: SBININBB280
IFSC/RTGS Code: SBIN0001365