THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The scientific community as well as the fishermen who participated in a workshop held here to discuss the future course of action to be initiated in averting Ockhi-like natural calamities unanimously raised objection to the government’s move to build seawall in the name of protecting fishermen villages.At the workshop organised under the aegies of the National Fish Workers Forum and the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, former member of Kerala Disaster Management Authority KG Thara said construction of sea wall was not a solution to sea erosion.
“If we construct a seawall at a particular place, then sea erosion would take place in the coast nearby,” she said. The activists and experts in the fishing sector said nearly 400 km of the 590-km-long sea cost has already got seawall and it has never been helpful to the fishermen community.
On the contrary, it had led to the vanishing of beaches making fishing activity more difficult.Thara said the state government had spent only 13 per cent of the allotted fund for Cyclone risk mitigation activities. An alternative communication channel exclusively for the fisherfolk is a must, she said.
Centre had sanctioned Rs 26.5 crore for block-based development. Though the amount had already been spent, it is not known whether any development had taken place.
She also hinted at the lapses in the emergency preparedness plan. The India Meterological Department has no research wing at Thiruvananthapuram. Though it has 79 rain gauge stations across the state, the measurement is taken by some staff members of the revenue offices were the instrument is placed. For the last six years, no balloon test has been conducted. It is necessary to conduct two tests a day to study climate changes.
Sheela Nair from the Centre for Earth Science Studies said though they had been installing instruments to get real-time data, the fishermen themselves were snapping connection with the equipment. Just a day before the Ockhi cyclone, our instrument developed a technical snag, she said. If the fisherfolk continue to snap the connection with the instruments, the very purpose of installing such instruments would be defeated, she said.
Leela Edwin of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology said fishermen were not using boats having BIS standards. Also they are using fishing nets longer than what has been stipulated for vessels fitted with outboard engines. None of the boats which got involved in the Ockhi disaster had life-saving devices, she said.
Dr Jasmine of the Central Marine and Fisheries Research Institue (CMFRI) said a token system should be introduced in Kerala as there was no clue about the actual number of fishermen who had ventured into the sea.
Speakers from the fishermen community strongly protested the lapses on the part of the scientific institutions in alerting the fishermen about the cyclone.
They wanted legal proceeding against the National Disaster Management Authority for its failure. Some of them even went to the extent of terming the disaster a genocide.
Fr Eugine Periera of the Latin Church said the government should come out with a white paper on Ockhi. He also objected to the government’s move to build more sea walls.
Clement Benjilas, a fishermen from Poonthura who survived the Cyclone inaugurated the workshop. Dr Muralidharan from the Natioanl Institute of Oceanography delivered the introductory lecture. KSMTF general secretary T Peter was the moderator.