Philomena T.A., 69, dreads returning to her home along Kuttikrishnan Road in Edakochi South, division 16 of Kochi Corporation, some 15 kilometres from Vyttila where she now lives with her daughter and family.
She can almost see in her mind’s eye what awaits her behind those closed doors. It was five months ago that she locked the house, where she lived for 25 years, and left with her daughter with a heavy heart. She could no longer wade through the knee-high water in the house, thanks to tidal flooding. Also, the subsequent clean-up would be herculean.
“It will be a big mess now with the sludge left behind. It breaks my heart to think how my house, which my late husband built for a small fortune, is rotting with each day. No one will even take it on rent. Who will want to live in a house invaded by water, mixed with the nauseating waste in drains, almost daily,” rues Philomena.
More intense, more frequent
Tidal flooding is nothing new to the coastal panchayats of Ernakulam district and even some areas of Kochi Corporation. However, now its intensity and frequency have gone up.
Worse still, the invading water, which previously receded in 15 to 20 minutes, now often remains stagnant for up to three hours. The phenomenon, called high tide slack, requires further study as its recurrence or the trigger behind it could not be predicted.
The longer the water remains inland, the more the chances of tidal floodwaters spreading to newer, hitherto unaffected areas. Just as it played out earlier this month when water entered hundreds of households in Kochi Corporation, 20 panchayats, and two municipalities.
The tidal gauge at Willingdon Island in Kochi recorded a high tide level of 1.62 metres around 3.30 a.m. on January 3. Though an even higher 1.63 metres, probably the highest in eight decades, was recorded on December 18, the impact was much less since the water receded within 10-15 minutes. However, on January 3, the relatively lower tide level caused greater havoc as the water remained above 1.5 metres for over two hours.
As per Equinoct, a Kochi-based community-sourced modelling solution provider, over 12,000 hectares, including Pokkali farms, across the 20 local bodies in Ernakulam district remain affected by tidal flooding causing land degradation in critical Ramsar sites (notified wetlands of international importance) with ramifications for biodiversity and even the tourism industry. It has proposed a technology-driven dashboard for tidal flooding mitigation, impact assessment, and forecasting, modelled on its Community-Sourced Impact-Based Flood Forecast and Early Warning System (CoS-it-FloWS) designed to address river flooding.
House elevated to no avail
“We had to elevate our house in 2002 as the water level kept rising. However, this time, water reached our portico while submerging and contaminating our water tanks. It has been almost a month since we have had safe drinking water, and we have to buy water even to wash our mouths. Around 300 families in our area are affected, with the water level rising each year,” says Manju Jayaprakash, a businesswoman staying at K.P. Vallon Road in Indira Nagar, a premium residential area at Kadavanthra.
Suja Lonappan, the councillor of Kadavanthra division in Kochi Corporation, says the water level in the drainages, canals, and surrounding rivers remains nearly unchanged, leaving little room for the tidal floodwaters to drain out. “As far as I remember, the rivers have not been dredged in the last 16 years, and until that is done, the situation will only worsen,” she fears.
Two years ago, N.D. Dhaneesh, a government official, moved out of his house in Edakochi to the staff quarters in Willingdon Island, since his daughter had to wade through the dirty water to reach school. However, he continues to make almost a daily trip back to Edakochi to give shape to a people’s movement to draw the attention of the authorities to their plight.
500 coconut trees perish
“Nearly 250 households across two divisions in Edakochi are affected, while eight families have abandoned their houses. Routine activities like using bathrooms and cooking have become a challenge. The toll on the environmental ecosystem is equally worse, as is evident from the fall of around 500 coconut trees owing to constant exposure to saline water,” he says.
Edavanakkad, a coastal panchayat 27 kilometres from Kochi city, which passed a resolution in 2022 demanding that the government notify tidal flooding as a disaster, is set to temporarily relocate willing families following fears over an epidemic outbreak owing to the near-constant presence of saline water. A 15-year-old was diagnosed with leptospirosis, a water-borne disease, on January 20 following which the panchayat convened an emergency meeting. Thirteen out of the 15 wards of the panchayat remain vulnerable to tidal flooding affecting over 27,000 people while many houses remain abandoned.
“Tidal flooding has reached a stage where addressing it is beyond the means of local bodies with meagre resources. That’s why we demand its notification as a disaster by the government for mitigation measures using better resources and coordination,” says Aseena Abdul Salam, Edavanakkad panchayat president.
Dredging, a solution?
In fact, at a meeting organised by the district panchayat – COPE with Tidal Flood – 20 more local bodies decided to pass a similar resolution demanding that tidal flooding be included on the list of State- national-level disasters. At the meeting, the local bodies decided to design projects, including detailed project reports for dredging, to ensure smooth water flow in waterbodies as part of the annual plan for the 2025-26 financial year. Steps would also be taken to include tidal flood mitigation works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
“An action plan will be formulated based on the recommendations of the local bodies affected by tidal flooding. The local bodies have also called for field visits by the State Relief Commissioner to assess the situation in the affected panchayats,” says Ernakulam district panchayat president and the Ernakulam District Disaster Management Authority co-chairman Manoj Moothedan.
However, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) pointed out that notifying tidal flooding as a disaster would hardly address the problem.
Instead, the authority suggests that the local bodies convene 13th Working Group on Disaster Management, Climate Change, and Biodiversity, and allocate their funds for long- and medium-term mitigation plans.
In disaster management plans
“Local bodies should regulate land use, determining what can be built and how in compliance with the Indian Standard Code for constructions in low-lying areas. Risk-informed land use plans should be developed in consultation with the district town planner. They should incorporate tidal flooding into their disaster management plans and approach the State for further assistance,” says Sekhar L. Kuriakose, member secretary, KSDMA.
This, however, is being dubbed an attempt by the State to wash its hands of its constitutional and administrative responsibility of guaranteeing citizens’ rights to life, livelihood, and property.
“Local bodies have systematically drawn up tidal mitigation plans and utilised their resources towards implementing them over the years. But the situation has deteriorated to a point where it is beyond their means and capabilities, especially financially weak local bodies with little resources to spare. In fact, there is a need for a master plan to address the problem that calls for Statewide coordination at the administrative and department levels,” says K.D. Vincent, former president of Ezhikkara panchayat.
Incidentally, the panchayat had passed a resolution demanding notification of tidal flooding as a disaster during his tenure as the civic body head.
Kochi Corporation’s master plan
Kochi Corporation claims that land use regulation has been taken care of in its master plan, which was notified by the State government in July 2024 marking the culmination of its nearly 20-year-long efforts to come up with a vision document for development. Henceforth, all the development activities in the city as well as construction works would have to be carried out as prescribed in the plan document, say civic authorities.
Besides, Mayor M. Anilkumar has requested the State Finance Minister to allocate ₹10 crore for dredging the backwaters in the forthcoming State Budget citing that it was beyond the means of the civic body.
The water flow in the sledge-filled backwater network from Thoppumpady to Edakochi, Edakochi to Perumpadappu and up to Pandarachira remains disrupted. Hence, the affected areas, which account for around 30,000 households across 11 divisions, have been experiencing unprecedented tidal flooding in the last couple of years. The situation is no different in the areas in the heart of the city, like Thevara and Vaduthala. Fishing, a primary means of livelihood for 2,000-odd fishing workers and 10,000-odd workers in allied sectors, has also been hit, he says.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Telangana, has now dubbed the previously largely ignored swell surge as a ‘low profile, high impact’ hazard, which is now causing greater damage and for which the agency now issues regular alerts.
“Swell surge, which is not locally originated but can emanate as far away as the Atlantic Ocean, may take up to a week to reach our shore. The frequency of inundation caused by the swell surge, which is linked to climate change and sea level rise, is likely to intensify further. The back-to-back swell waves result in heightened sea level disrupting the ebb flow, thus causing water to stay inland for prolonged periods,” says T. M. Balakrishnan Nair, director, INCOIS.
T.S. Anish, Professor of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Kozhikode, warns that exposure to sustained flooding caused by the high tide can lead to an outbreak of water and mosquito-borne epidemics like cholera, malaria, typhoid, and leptospirosis.
“We have also noticed a trend of emerging infections like West Nile fever in flooding-prone areas. The proliferation of mosquitoes causing diseases like West Nile fever could also make them carriers of infections from migratory birds visiting coastal areas. Besides, displacement caused by flooding could also have mental health consequences, especially among children,” says Dr. Anish.
C.G. Madhusoodanan, Chief Executive Officer of Equinoct, sounds caution against unscientific deep dredging, warning that it would only further worsen flooding by increasing the flow of seawater through river mouths. He emphasised the need for a detailed bathymetry survey of Vembanad Lake to assess silting levels. Based on the survey, hotspots should be identified for targeted and systematic dredging, he suggests.
“The silt and mud from dredging should be utilised to raise the height of land and bunds across Pokkali fields in the area, enhancing the resilience of Kochi’s surroundings to tidal floods. Besides, sluices and shutters should be installed to regulate the flow through channels connecting the land and the lake. The effective implementation of this massive activity covering more than 7,000 hectares of land requires active community participation,” he says.
Meanwhile, for Philomena, life remains a never-ending ordeal, having no idea when or if at all she will be able to return home someday.
Published - January 23, 2025 08:06 pm IST
