Kochi: The fury of the people of Chellanam at the authorities far outweighs the fury of the waves that lash the coast these days. The people are furious over the piecemeal measures taken by the authorities to insulate them from the lashing waves in recent years.
“Last monsoon everything in my house was washed away in the sea erosion. Officials and politicians visited our houses but only promises remained apart from some rice that too of low quality from the ration shop. They have not bothered to protect our houses from the lashing waves. The geo tube that has been erected here has sunk below and our fate is not going to be different this monsoon also. Already the waves hit our homes last night,” said 75-year-old Mary who resides near Velankanni chur-ch at Maruvakkadavu on the Chellanam coast on Tuesday.
She said that what offers some resistance to the waves is the broken sea wall which was erected some 50 years ago on the coast. “But now the waves are overcoming it to reach our homes and we need better cover. The District Collector nor other officials nor the political leadership are delivering. They just visit these places during rough weather and then go back,” she said.
Interestingly around 40 policemen were deployed on the coast on Tuesday as a security measure in view of the rough sea but were seen sitting and counting the waves even as the male members of the fisherfolk families gathered their might to find ways to battle the waves by filling geo bags and placing them on the coast.
Fr Michael Punnackal, co-ordinator of West Kochi Coastal Protection Council, who leads the wave fighting exercise, said that the sea wall protection is not availbale in the Companypady area. “Apart from that the sea wall is broken in two km stretch of Maruvakkadu and Bazar areas and over 1000 families altogether are at the mercy of the sea,” said Fr Michael.
He said that work for laying the geo tubes on the coast was awarded for `8.5 crore but the inefficient contractor did not undertake the work properly. “The geo tube should have been laid at five and a half metre height, but three tubes were laid after excavating sand from the place where it had to be laid which defeated the very purpose of laying it,” said Fr Michael adding comprehensive protection for the entire coast from Fort Kochi to Andhakaranazhi is needed. He also said that the coastal residents are adamant this time that they won’t go to camps set up by authorities and want the issue to be resolved.
Fisherman A.D. Sebast-ian said that the contractor undertook a self-defeating posture from day one. “He deployed equipment that were not suitable for dredging sand from the sea and bring it to the shore to fill in geo tubes. Then was this act of dredging sand from the shore itself. These were done when dredged sand was available in Chellan-am panchayat itself to fill in geo tubes. Interestingly the panchayat found it convenient to auction off this sand for `18 lakh to another person. Everybody wants to fill in their pockets leaving us to the mercy of the sea,” said Sebastian.
Another fisherman Vincent V.X. said that earlier there was a move to dredge sand from the Gap area in Chellanam but some disputes blocked it. Sebastian said that the contractor who undertook geo tube work demanded exorbitant amount to remove the sand from the Gap area to Maruvakkadavu which stalled the work. “Our untold misery continues and none is here to help us,” said Vincent.
