KOCHI: Sunil, a resident of Kuttikkattukara, near Eloor, which has more than 100 households, stands helpless as he looks inside his house partially submerged in water. “Since the monsoon started in May, this is the third time that our houses are getting submerged,” he said.
“Every time we return from relief camps or from our relatives’ houses, it takes about five days’ hard work for the dampness to go. But, on the sixth day water comes again,” he said. Almost all houses here are filled with water. Unable to even get their ration and Aadhar cards from the houses, they fear they won’t be able to avail of relief benefits.
Their livelihoods also have been affected by the deluge. Anparasu wades his way through neck-deep water to the rented house in Panchayat colony in Pathalam. He and his neighbours have managed to move some of their belongings to the nearest relief camp. The Tamil Nadu native, a fish seller who came to Kerala two years ago, is experiencing such a flood for the first time. Water gushed into their houses last night and they escaped with whatever they could lay their hands on.
Eleven other Tamil families too live in the area. Unable to go for their jobs, they now rely on the rations supplied by the government. Along with Panchayat colony, people in Basheer Colony and Mammoonj colony here too have been evacuated. Forty-three families including 22 kids and 51 women now live in an Eloor school while people from Bosco colony and ISE Company area live in a school at Kuttikkattukara. People here live in panic as water shows no signs of receding.