Monsoon is coming, but is kerala ready?
It has been about nine months since floods ravaged Kerala during the last monsoon. The next monsoon is just days away, but it appears the state is as ill-prepared to deal with a natural disaster now as it was then. The monsoon is expected to arrive by June 6, a little later than usual, and forecasters have predicted below-normal rainfall. But that doesn’t mean the state can take things easy, considering how predictions went awry last year and an unprecedented calamity was unleashed without any warning.
There are enough reasons to be worried about the approaching monsoon, though the rains would certainly bring much-needed relief to the parched state. While on one hand reconstruction and repair works taken up after the large-scale damage caused by the August 2018 deluge are yet to be completed, on the other, measures that were supposed to be taken up to ensure that the last year’s scenario doesn’t repeat have not got enough attention. It was estimated that 34,732 km of roads and 213 bridges were damaged in the floods. Though the public works department says the damaged portions have been repaired, the ground situation seems otherwise. Except for some patches here and there, there are no indications of any major restoration work carried out. Besides, a huge amount of funds—`31,000 crore, according to an estimate—is required for reconstruction, and the state has managed to gather only a fraction of that.
It’s unfortunate that works necessary to avoid another rain-induced disaster have been given a go-by. Even steps like desilting of canals and removal of encroachments from water bodies have not been taken up seriously. The floods were a result of heavy rains and the simultaneous release of water from the dams. A report by a court-appointed expert blamed poor dam management for the flooding. Even other experts had pointed out how the dams in Kerala don’t have effective flood control zones. Little seems to have changed even now. The government must wake up, and put in place measures to deal with possible flooding. Precious time has been lost in squabbling over who is to blame. It will take a long time to overcome the devastation of last year’s floods. Another calamity will be even more costly.