Bund fall inundates Maruthamkuzhy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Incessant rain has inundated low lying areas at Maruthamkuzhy following the collapse of the protection wall of Killiyar River here.

As many as 200 houses in the region were marooned in flash floods and some of the two-storey houses were immersed upto the ground floor with people being stranded on the first floor.

The lethargy of the Major Irrigation department in constructing the permanent bund has left the residents in the lurch.

Shiny Jacob Benjamin, a resident of River Valley – one of the worst affected areas - said that people were living in constant fear.

“This time all of us anticipated this when the bund started leaking from 3 am and the sand bags set up by the authorities as part of temporary measures were washed away by the heavy currents. In June there was similar flooding and around 11 cars were damaged causing heavy financial loss. We cannot go on living like this. We need a permanent solution. The river overflows whenever it rains,” said Shiny Jacob Benjamin.

She said that the government did not give any compensation for the loss last time. “This time we are going to demand compensation because this has been a mistake on the part of the authorities,” she added.

River Valley residents association, Maruthamkuzhy Residents Assocaition and MKP Nagar were the affected areas. Prabhakaran Nair, another resident, said that the water level started receding by afternoon.

“We are not able to sleep peacefully. There are small and single storey buildings and if the flood occurs at night, people would die. This is an alarming situation,” said Mr Prabhakaran.

Additional District Magistrate V R Vinod said that the situation was under control and everything was in place to evacuate and relocate residents if the floods occured again.

“The work to construct a permanent bund has been tendered and the work would take off real soon,” he said. Various agencies swung into operation from morning to transport stranded residents to safe locations.

Meanwhile,  K Muraleedharan MLA, Mayor K Chandrika and Collector Biju Prabhakar visited the spot and monitored rescue operations.