Staying afloat after the deluge
land in a safe zone for the landless. This is being done by the local self-government agencies,” said Jose.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, THOUGH
The supply of drinking water and electricity is mostly restored. As of 11 September, only 120 camps with 4,778 persons were still in operation (at the height of the floods, over 1.4 million people were living in over 3,000 camps); in most affected districts like Alappuzha, Ernakulum and Pathanamthitta, cleaning work entailed removing slush from homes as well as medicating water in wells, which is where 70% of the state gets its drinking water from. As a short-term measure, ₹10,000 was given to all families residing in camps—a total of 450,000 families.
One of them was Shailaja, a 50-year-old tea stall owner on the Mannarkulanji Pampa road, which runs alongside the meandering Pampa in Pathanamthitta district. The need of the hour, she says, is a toilet. The roof over her mother’s house, which shares a wall with the tea stall, caved in when the Pampa was in spate. Her mother, a 96-year-old cancer patient, is too frail to walk to the neighbour’s house, a short distance away on the snaking mountain road, to use their toilet. As a result, her health is worsening, and Shailaja is trying to do all she can to maintain hygiene inspite of limited resour- ces—the only cleaning liquid in her shop is a fast depleting bottle of dettol—and even less money. Shailaja says that she has spoken to the Perunad village officer who came for inspection to assess damage in the area. “He said they will do their best to get this done. But he didn’t give me any timeline of when this will happen.”
Meanwhile, multiple assessments are underway: The local self government bodies have begun to use an application, to which taluk engineers are adding photographs of flood damaged areas. Once these are geo-tagged, a database of more accurate information will be available. The water resources ministry is undertaking a flood mapping project with the help of the Kerala Water Authority.
The Indian Institute of Architects is assessing the damage caused to and by the Pampa river, particularly in Aranmula area of Pathanamthitta district. The United Nations Development Project is also in the process of conducting a study.
The Centre for Water Resources Development and Management has been assigned the task of studying fall in water levels, changes in groundwater and land cracks. Preliminary research shows that river bed erosion due to the floods—1.1m in some places such as in Poonoor Puzha river in Kozhikode—deepening of river beds due to mining, and accumulation of debris and clay, has resulted in a worry- ing decrease of water levels in the rivers said VP Dinesan, senior principal scientist and head of the geomatics division of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management .
As the state returns to normal, healthcare is an important concern. Kerala has had one of the best health indices in the country because of a higher standard of living, and affordable healthcare. For instance, all government hospitals, including the Kottayam Medical College that Thanknamma visits, offer free cancer treatment under the state’s Sukrutham scheme. This year’s budget allocated ₹1,685.70 crore for the Plan for Public Health Services. However, the floods have placed additional demand on the state.
In some areas, hospitals were either submerged, or had fallen down. For instance, the 125-year-old Chalakudy Taluk Hospital in Thrissur district, which caters to over 300,000 people in the area, suffered a loss of over ₹10 crore. Several hospitals in the worst affected districts of Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Alappuzha, had to evacuate their patients, and cancel critical surgeries. In August, the Union health ministry approved a grant of ₹18.71 crore under the National Health Mission to be disbursed across villages.
While the state established temporary hospitals and took the help of private clinics and non-government organisations to stock up on medicine, equipment like CT Scans or X-ray machines, and offer free medical aid in relief camps, their work is far from over.
Soon after the flood waters began to recede, cases of Leptospirosis were reported, particularly from Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts. Between 3 and 13 September—according to the National Centre for Disease Control’s district-wise daily report—there was a 344% rise in confirmed cases. Seventy eight suspected cases have emerged and 22 people have died in this period. Till 18 September, over 30,000 new cases of acute diahorreal diseases and 194,000 cases of fever have also been reported. Then there’s the concern of livelihood: Thankamma’s bus fare to receive chemotherapy depends on her sons receiving daily wage work.
According to the state finance minister, NREGS will benefit rehabilitation efforts as much as it will help the poor get back on their feet. But for those working in the diary and agricultural sectors, such as in Alappuzha district, which is a ricegrowing region, or even the migrant workers who were working in the plantations in Wayanad and Idduki, the loss of livelihood demands an ecologically sound response, and fast—the Northeast monsoon begins next month.