Encroachment caused floods: Muhammedali Aambakkudi

Kochi : Several natives of Kadungalloor and Muppathadam near Aluva rue the flooding this time as they feel the encroachment on the Onjithodu which runs through these places to join close to backwaters at Methanam, made it so intense. Onjithodu branches out from Varattupuzha, a branch of Periyar.

An old-timer remembers that Muppathadam area was a relief camp in the 1962 floods which was the most severe since 1924 floods and before this year’s floods. “I was an 11-year-old boy when the floods in 1962 floods took place and people from other parts of Kadungalloor were accommodated at Muppathadam as the area was not flooded. This time water went up by seven feet inside houses in Muppathadam while in other parts of Kadungallur panchayat it was above 10 feet,” said Muhammedali Aambakkudi, a social activist and native of Muppathadam.

He said that in the 1962 floods, water came and cleared Muppathadam are in just one day without flooding the area while this year the floods lasted four days. “This could have been avoided if Onjithode was in its original shape so that flood water could easily clear. It had a width of 20 metres originally and now at several points it has a width of only seven and five metres while now even its course has been changed through encroachment,” said Muhammedali.

Environmentalist N Ramachandran who is a native of Kadungalloor said that an anganwadi has been built in the mouth of Onjithode and who built is still a mystery. “They have also allowed private individuals to encroach the canal. Except in floods, it is dead and in times of flood, the flood water does not easily flow out,” said Ramachandran. He said that roads are also constructed in Kadungalloor area across paddy fields which made the floods intense. “These were done rejecting the objections raised by natives and environmentalists,” he added.