KOCHI: People living along the coast from Saudi to Chellanam are fighting a losing battle with the sea and there seems to be no one to help them. Earlier, they had to just be afraid of the violent seas intruding their homes and destroying properties from June to August. However, now the families numbering over 1,000 spend sleepless nights since the sea has begun making incursions every other day.
“The reason is the collapse of the seawall along the coast,” said Cleatus Punnakkal, member, Chellanam Janakeeya Vedi (CJV). According to him, with the walls settling below the sea level, waves now easily make their way into the land. “Another issue being faced by the people of Chellanam is the incursion of silt and mud from the sea. In the past, we only had to deal with inundation. But now, we have to deal with silt and mud that get deposited once the water recedes,” he said.
“The septic tanks of our toilets and the floors of our houses have been taken over by silt. We can’t use the toilets since the septic tanks are jammed and need cleaning,” he said. According to another resident, the geobags and tubes are all a failure. “Instead of placing them in the sea, they have been placed in trenches dug up on the beaches. You can see the condition of the ones that had been laid some time ago. The materials are all in tatters. Any person with common sense will know that leaving plastic material in the sun can damage it,” said the resident.
“Have seen how Chellanam coast now looks like. It looks like a curved snake gourd. Sea has eaten into a huge chunk of the coast. Many areas where the land has the lake and sea on either side, the width of the land has reduced drastically. In a few years, the lake and the sea will become one,” said Cleatus. According to him, this situation had been predicted by English architect Sir Bristow who built the Cochin Port. “Even he had said that the only solution will be to construct groynes breaks to prevent coastal erosion,” he said.
The people under the aegis of CJV are on a relay hunger strike that entered the 333rd day on Thursday. “Very soon we will be going in for indefinite hunger strike. We aren’t bothered what counter steps the authorities will take. They might forcibly take us to hospitals. But we will not stop our fast,” said Cleatus, who called the compensation package of `10 lakh announced by the government as paltry.