Last year’s devastating floods may have left Kerala in shambles, but the calamity failed to break the spirit of its people. The state witnessed a camaraderie and an undaunted spirit among its people, who pulled together to tide over the fury of the rain.
Although the first anniversary of the deluge is round the corner, the state administration continues to go slow on rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in areas that bore the brunt of the catastrophe.
The progress of the post-flood recovery programme has been tardy, as most of the government-sponsored housing projects for the rehabilitation of flood victims has been delayed by bureaucratic bottlenecks and long-drawn-out processes. Also, there were allegations of discrimination and laxity on the part of the authorities in disbursing flood relief assistance.
Financial aid for the damaged houses is provided by estimating the loss in percentage terms. Houses that suffered 75 per cent damage or more would be considered as fully damaged.
The government had announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to people who lost their homes and Rs 6 lakh to those who lost both their homes and properties.
There were four slabs in disaster relief distribution with people eligible for Rs 10,000 (for damages up to 15 per cent), Rs 60,000 (for damages up to 29 per cent), Rs 1.25 lakh (for damages up to 59 per cent) and Rs 2.50 lakh (for damages up to 74 per cent).
However, in Ernakulam, one of the worst-affected districts, all these guidelines have gone for a toss.
The district administration has found that it had deposited over Rs 7 crore in the bank accounts of over 300 people ineligible to receive that level of disaster relief assistance. Each person received Rs 2.5 lakh in their bank accounts, and the authorities blamed it on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) which had handled the technical aspect of the transfer of money.
As soon as the defect was detected, the district administration launched a frantic damage control exercise to recover the amount by freezing the accounts and initiating revenue recovery proceedings. The authorities managed to get back over Rs 3.5 crore of the excess amount initially. People who had withdrawn the cash amounting to Rs 1.75 lakh were forced to return it, but only after much arm-twisting by officials. A special team has been formed to recover the remaining amount of Rs 1.75 lakh.
A costly mistake
The United Nations (UN) had come forward to coordinate efforts to get foreign funding for Kerala's rebuilding, but the state government did not respond to the offer for about two months. And now, when the first anniversary of the calamity is barely two months away, the government has woken up from its slumber and is planning to convene a meeting of international funding agencies in New Delhi.
Immediately after the floods struck Kerala, the UN resident coordinator Yuri Afanasiev had written to the heads of 30 countries seeking monetary aid for the relief and rehabilitation processes. The state government had also been intimated about the same. But the government’s failure to respond to the initiative delayed any follow-up action.
The state government was hesitant to respond to the UN offer due to apprehensions over the Central policy on accepting aid from foreign governments. In fact, there was no legal or policy hurdles for accepting foreign funds through the UN.
Hollow promises
The ‘Ujjivan help programme’ launched by the state government to provide loans to flood-hit farmers and entrepreneurs failed to make any impact due to non-cooperation of banking institutions. As per official data, 5,355 small-scale units suffered losses to the tune of Rs 1,415 crore, while damages to commercial establishments was estimated at Rs 624 crore. The Ujjivan scheme envisaged provision of financial assistance to farmers and traders who have availed loans to rebuild their lives.
The objective was to offer assistance at different levels of repayment schedules by arranging margin money, discount on interest rate charged on the loan amount and a support scheme. However, according to data available up to May, benefits under the Ujjivan programme were availed only by 298 units while the total amount disbursed was just Rs 21.03 crore. The banking institutions who promised to cooperate with the programme at a meeting convened by the government, however, showed no further interest.
Lessons of woeful neglect
The Kurichiarmala Government UP school in Wayanad, which was ravaged by a huge landslide on August 9, is a mute testimony to apathy and neglect. The school building was all but destroyed. Large amounts of debris—mud, rocks and trees—were piled in front of it. The school now functions from a madrassa in the vicinity. A year has passed since the tragedy, but there is still no sign of an end to the long, agonising wait of for a new building.
Though the district administration has identified a 3-acre plot in the locality, the project is progressing at a slow pace because of the alleged delay in releasing funds. Since the Education Department cannot sanction funds for purchasing land, a special order is required to take over the plot.
An office in tatters
The sub-registrar's office in Pulincunnu near Kuttanad remained submerged for days during the floods, damaging several important documents and computers. The authorities took efforts to restore the facilities only after the plight of the office made headlines. Computers and other machineries have been procured, but their installation is not yet completed.
The office is also crippled by a severe shortage of staff as nobody is willing to work there, citing absence of basic infrastructure facilities. The sub-registrar was transferred two months ago and the post has been lying vacant ever since. People living in 13 panchayats in the Kuttanad region depend on this office for registration processes.
Floods root out a post office
Almost all government offices at Ranni in Pathanamthitta district had been flooded during last year’s incessant rains. One of the worst-hit structures was the town post office, which was found floating in the flood waters. The office now functions from the Ranni post office. As the authorities could not find an ideal plot to construct a new building, a request has been made to the Postmaster General to cease its operations.
Are we ready to handle another emergency?
In the aftermath of the floods, the state disaster management department had issued an order on September 6, 2018, to mark the levels of the floods in all the affected public places in two weeks’ time.
Government and semi-government institutions were instructed to install flood marking plates that would have the details of the maximum water level in metres as measure from the ground level and the date for future reference. Though flood-marking plates were fixed in several places across Thrissur, things have not moved on expected lines in Ernakulam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts.
Marking the flood levels is one of the basic measures that must be taken to control and prevent flooding in the future but, unfortunately, there has been no progress on that front. Notably, many affected individuals did not wait for government’s intervention as they installed marking plates on their own.
Blocked waterways
Last August, the agriculture minister had announced that detailed studies would be conducted to analyse the impact of the floods on soil conditions in Kuttanad. But the study report has not seen the light of day yet. Absence of proper drainage and encroachment of marshlands and water bodies were some issues that have been cited for the massive devastation in Kuttanad. No action has been initiated to resolve these issues as well.
In Chengannur, the earlier river course of the Pambayar was filled-in and encroached, causing the Pamba river to flow on the roads and wreak havoc. No study to identify the areas vulnerable to flooding or determine the ecological factors that exacerbated the impact of the floods has been carried out.
A disaster waiting to happen
One of the key elements that added to the severity of the floods in Pathanamthitta was the Anathode reservoirs of the Sabarigiri hydro-electric project located in the upper reaches of Moozhiyar. Various studies have highlighted the massive destruction of the hilly tracts along the Pamba river channel. Broken boulders, rock dumps and waste are strewn all around the hill downstream of the Anathode reservoir. If another calamity of this intensity and magnitude takes place, hectares of forest land on the opposite side of the dam would be destroyed, warn ecologists.
The huge hillocks in the area are prone to landslides during heavy rain. The huge deposits of sand and silt accumulated in the Pamba at Pampa-Triveni and along residential areas downstream have not yet been removed. If local residents attempt to clear the sand deposit, the revenue and forest authorities would pounce on them because removing sand and gravel from the river beds—property of the state—without consent is a distinct offence under the IPC.
Though a tender was invited for sand removal, no one took part in the proceedings. The sand removed from the Pamba has been lying on the riverbed. With the rain intensifying, the stockpile of sand stored along the course of the Pambayar would freely flow into the Pamba once again.
A cabinet meeting had decided to give 20,000 cubic metres of sand for free to the Travancore Devaswom Board for development works at Sabarimala. But the proposal has been put on the back-burner as a result of lack of coordination among government departments.
This story was originally published in onmanorama.
