Sea erosion: over 80 villages in Thiruvananthapuram in danger zone

Residents use sandbags to ward off waves at Valiyathura

June 15, 2019 12:44 am | Updated 07:38 am IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Friday afternoon at Valiyathura. A twenty-something youngster races down the narrow, twisting lane, pushing a wheelbarrow laden with beach sand before him. He dumps the sand at the end of the lane, where a raging sea crashes over the remains of an old seawall and the debris of houses.

Using a spade, an elderly fisherman scoops up the sand into large sacks. In reality, the makeshift sandbags offer scant protection against the battering waves. However, in the absence of a robust seawall, the bags are better than nothing, say the residents.

“The first line of houses was destroyed in the previous monsoons and the families were offered flats at Muttathara. This season, several houses in the second line have been destroyed,” says the youngster who identifies himself as Shibu, a fisherman.

Shibu does not live in the locality anymore as his family has been allotted a flat at Muttathara. The young fisherman had come down to give a hand with the sandbags.

“Fishing is out of the question anyway since the sea is choppy,” he adds.

Since April-end, sea erosion has destroyed 30 houses in Valiyathura and the nearby villages of Kochuthope and Thope, according to the Latin Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram.

Eighty more are in the danger zone. Around 72 families have found refuge in three schools in the Valiyathura region. “The residents say the sandbags are useless. They are demanding granite for building a seawall,” Archbishop M. Soosa Pakiam, who visited the affected areas and the relief camps, told reporters on Friday.

Unfortunately, granite has reportedly been in short supply in recent months. Valiyathura residents, who gheraoed Water Resources Minister K. Krishnankutty on Thursday, had blamed the Irrigation Department of doing little to construct seawalls to protect this stretch of the coast.

“On that side, six houses have been destroyed,” Sebastian, another resident who had been busy carting sand for the sandbags on Friday, said, pointing to a row of houses rendered uninhabitable by the marauding waves.

Situation in camps

“The situation in the camps is also bad. The families were reportedly promised makeshift toilets from the Games Village. But they have not been provided yet,” said Monsignor C. Joseph, Vicar General, Thiruvananthapuram Archdiocese.

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