KOLLAM: At a time when preventing mighty sea waves from gnawing away land and lives on the shore remains a question despite the use of concrete blocks and brick bolsters, the authorities have now resorted to protect the shore using sand-filled nylon bags. This move has now attracted the ire of public workers who allege that sand bags are a waste of taxpayers’s money.
The major irrigation department has installed sand barriers in the areas that experience the worst fury of the sea including Thanni, Kakkathoppe, and Papanasam coast in Mundakkal. These loosely knitted bags are filled with sand as a barrier against the waves. “A similar method had failed in preventing the wrath of furious waves in Kakkathuruthu where even a dredger got beached. The authorities tried to block these waves during their attempt to tug the dredger away. However, these bags could not withstand the waves for even two weeks,” Subhash Kalavara, seawall and breakwater workers union president, told DC.
The department has itemised the move under ‘emergency work’ which the public alleges would not only lead to the sea eating away the shore but even the money invested. An expert team from Chennai IIT that had conducted a study on the sea’s fury along the shore of Kollam had recommended that small breakwaters having a length of 35 meters length into the sea constructed at a gap of 150 meters would help in evading the angry waves. It was also estimated around 105 breakwaters would suffice to protect the coast along Thanni to Azheekkal in the district.
The former Government had sanctioned 35 such breakwaters, but it was affected by the scarcity of quarry rock in the district. The council including the district administration and mining and geology department have given sanction to only eight quarries in the district out of which all seven are crusher units, virtually permitting just one quarry in Chadayamangalam to function. The production from the lone quarry is insufficient to meet the needs of the entire district, which has apparently forced the authorities to abide by weaker alternatives to protect the coastline even risking the lives of the fishermen.
