HOLLAND AND KUTTANADU

                                                                            

                                                                             

 

                                                                         

                                                                              

                                                                                    

          These are the pictures of a house at Anaprampal on the Tiruvalla - Edathua road at the time of 2018 floods. Though the floods and the suffering of 2018 was unprecedented,    ever since the year 2000, year after year, multiple times a year, the house undergoes the trauma.

The house belongs to a middle class family.   It neighbours the main road where traffic is heavy.

The house when it was built was three feet above the road level. Floods never transgressed into it. As time wore on, the State Govt took steps to develop the road. It's level was gradually raised higher and higher.     Today the house stands three feet below the road level. And floods  creep into it with ease.

When the road was developed, it had bunded the flow of water. The artificial barrier ensures that flood waters are confined to one side of the road that is closer to the Pampa river.                                                  

While this is the direct cause, there are four more factors that are indirect.

Anaprampal is very much an integral constituent of  Kuttanadu, once the much heralded rice bowl of Kerala.

In order to protect agriculture in the area, the Thottappally Spillway and the Thannermukkam barrage were built. Unfortunately, as the water level rises quickly in the area there are delays in opening their shutters to let out the water into sea. 

The coastal railway line acts as an extended bund impeding the smooth flow of water across Kuttanadu.

Further in a bid to improve connectivity, roads now criss cross Kuttanadu.  These roads have come up on bunds. The corollary is water cannot move freely in the area like it had been in the earlier days when development was a dream that never materialised.

One has to blame the planners for this state of affairs. They did not provide for the smooth flow water across when the roads and the railway line were built.

Kuttanadu is an area that is below sea level. 

Holland shares this feature. But they do not experience the issues Kuttanadu face.

What beats the common man's intelligence is,  though a host of the high and the mighty have trekked it to Holland time and again to learn how Holland has successfully tackled the rising waters and of course the horrors and trauma of floods ,   Kuttanadu has remained in the doldrums over the years. 

Everything is piecemeal here. Meanwhile Holland, below sea level, has flourished. It is among the most advanced nations in the world today.

Kuttanadu remains neglected.  No one cares for the place nor its people. The suffering is endemic.