NATURE’S fury is unpredictable and many a human civilization have been victims of its brutal impact. The claim of modern civilization is that it has the capacity to lessen the fierceness of the impact given its technological and organizational prowess and power. However, the other side of the story is that modern civilization has pursued a culture of continuous predation on nature resulting in a certain disequilibrium now summed up as ‘climate change’. The devastating floods during August 2018 in Kerala were rivalled only by an earlier one, almost a century ago, in 1924, by its intensity and ferocity. It is still alive in people’s memory although that did not act as a sobering influence on the predatory process of development that Kerala witnessed especially through the early 1990s.

There is no doubt that the Great Kerala Floods of 2018 shook the very core of people’s confidence in the ecological foundations of their existence despite recurrent warnings of a smaller scale often confined to restricted locations. The floods were a result of heavy rains starting from 1 June to 19 August 2018 that was 42% above normal. But its distribution was so skewed that during August the rainfall exceeded by 164% from the normal. Twelve out of 14 districts were declared flood affected with seven of them fully affected. Flood affected villages accounted for 57% of the total population of 33.3 million and 5.4 million were directly affected; 1.4 million sought refuge in public relief camps; 433 persons lost their lives mostly due to sudden landslips and landslides and gushing of water in vulnerable areas.

 

The human impact was manifested not just in deaths and people fleeing from homes, but in a number of other ways, the impact of which is still continuing. Over 17,300 families lost their residential structures and for some both land-sites and the housing structures got washed away. An estimated 3.17 lakh shallow wells were damaged and close to a lakh of toilets were destroyed, affecting more than four lakh people. More than 1.7 lakh houses were partially destroyed along with 1,613 schools plus a number of other public and private residential buildings.

Those affected by the damage and destruction of housing, of schools and other buildings lost their valuables ranging from textbooks, food grains, clothes and furniture to inventories of goods in stores, workshops and factories. A UN study,¹ undertaken at the request of the state government, estimated a loss equivalent of 6.6% of the state income in 2018, i.e. Rs 27000 crore. It estimated that Rs 31,000 crore would be required to recover the lost assets and build them again.

 

Prominent amongst the damage assessed by the UN study is that of public infrastructure. This included 886 km of river banks and 103 km of coastal protection and drainage systems that were either eroded or damaged and/or heavily deposited with debris. Besides 1,640 km of main irrigation canals, over 540 km of distributor canals, and more than 350 hydraulic structures were damaged affecting the water supply in the command area for the upcoming cropping season. Seventy minor dams and 200 storage ponds also got damaged. Five major hydro power generation stations and 14 small hydel power stations were affected by floods along with a large number of transformers and distribution sub-stations affecting 25 lakh consumers. Forty per cent of national highways, and 47% of both state highways and district major roads were damaged in varying degrees. In production sectors, the largest damage was in agriculture, livestock and fisheries which is the mainstay of the livelihood of close to 30% of families.

But what could not be adequately quantified, let alone valued in money terms, is what may be called the environmental loss. The slow deforestation of the otherwise dense, evergreen tropical rain forests in the Western Ghats, the unscientific and haphazard manner of granite quarrying estimated at close to 6000 in that area, the opening up of forest lands for construction of roads, the vertical cutting of slopes of land areas for building construction and encroachments of earlier forested areas for crop cultivation, the emergence of tourist centres with scant regard to the topographic and ecologically sensitive characteristics and heightened and indiscriminate dispersal of non-degradable wastes – all resulted in the accelerated flow of flood waters gushing down the slope, smashing the vulnerable land mass, breaching river embankments, sweeping down the dispersed but accumulated wastes of all kinds, and finally silting river beds, lakes, canals often blocking sea mouths.

Dams are supposed to store excess water but are also control valves to release water in a staggered manner by taking into account the anticipated inflow. Instead, all the major and medium dams were already full when the unprecedented heavy downpour during August occurred, forcing 37 dams to open their gates simultaneously. It is widely believed that this added to the intensity and ferocity of the floods resulting in widespread damage.

The experience of Kerala in the aftermath of the Great Floods of 2018 threw up a number of lessons that I would like to highlight given their country-wide (or beyond) relevance at a time of heightened public display of the politics of hate and crime and of bigotry and other chauvinistic exhibitionism of all kinds in the name of nationalism that has also finally, though belatedly, gripped sections of the society in Kerala.

 

The role of voluntarism: The widespread disaster also witnessed the rise of the human spirit above the narrow confines of religion, caste and similar divisive barriers. What was spontaneous and remarkable was the outpouring of voluntarism from the younger generation armed with their skills in Information and Communication Technology through the mobile phones. That helped in locating hundreds of thousands of persons trapped in their homes, matching the demand for and supply of relief materials especially food and water, crowd sourcing of funds and ideas, managing relief camps and collection centres as well as the logistics of transportation of personnel and materials.

Another side of this voluntarism was exemplified by the heroic intervention of fishers who mobilized 669 boats and rescued more than 65 thousand people from different locations. No doubt, the national and the regional state responded quickly with personnel and equipment and their rescue efforts were no less heroic. However, some sober pondering is called for when one finds that the 481 boats deployed by all the state forces² was way below those deployed by the 4,537-odd fishing community. Voluntarism during and after the floods encompassed a whole range of services including the cleaning up of the houses and the surroundings of more than two lakh families where the flood waters stayed ranging from 10 to 30 days. The challenge now is how to channelize this social capital in the rebuilding of a new Kerala. The message sent out by this massive mobilization of social capital is that the public sphere is alive and alert in Kerala.

 

Schools as shelters: Of the more than 3000 buildings used as shelters during the floods, more than half were schools and a few colleges, underlining the ‘public purpose’ role of these public buildings. That they are not only places for educating children but also multi-functional places especially in times of disasters is something that has given them greater visibility and public profile. Of course, these schools have long been used for many functions locally, but their spread and density have come in handy in times of disaster, imparting them with a larger purpose. It is also worth noting that many places of worship such as temples, mosques and churches were also used as shelters for all, regardless of faith. The important lesson is the role of public/community buildings and the need to nourish them as part of ‘social capital’.

Decentralized system of governance: Kerala’s Panchayat Raj Institutions have traversed a long way since the mid-1990s as the third tier of governance. During the disastrous floods, it became very clear that the PRIs were the appropriate units to organize rescue and relief operations as well as for people to contact their immediate elected representatives. The PRIs worked in close coordination with the Revenue Department that was in charge of rescue and relief operations. The presence of elected members, 52% of them being women, the willing participation of voluntary organizations as well as individuals in the mobilizational efforts of the PRIs and the close collaboration of district administration teams, presented a picture of coordinated functioning of the state and the civil society that greatly reduced the suffering of people, animals and institutions directly impacted by the floods.

 

Environment as natural capital: Despite several warnings of a localized nature, the environmental dimensions including the ecological resources provided by nature were taken for granted. That environment has a capital function in production was brought home in sharp focus when it was realized that the flood-affected crop lands had suddenly become unproductive with silting of sand, mud, stones and debris. River embankments got breached causing havoc to nearby agricultural and other lands. Tourism came to a standstill with widespread natural calamities. Suddenly it was realized that putting back the natural ecosystem to productive activities called for massive resources as in the case of the damage to manufactured capital assets.

 

The resilience of a public health care system: It was remarkable that there was no outbreak of any health epidemic following the floods. A good part of the credit should go to the public health care system that responded to the situation in a proactive way. State and district level control rooms were opened, medicines and other materials were dispatched to camps and other health centres, health teams from the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu assisted in disease surveillance at the district level, and WHO was approached for assistance in strengthening disease surveillance. A surge in cases of leptospirosis and dengue was immediately controlled. Rapid Response Teams were organized and held several meetings. Community volunteers from Kudumbashree, Anganwadi and ASHA group and teams from associations of medical professionals provided crucial support in all these activities.

One must also mention here the high level of health consciousness of the people at large and their readiness to follow the protocols suggested by health professionals. Here again, Kerala’s long legacy of investment in the public health system rescued the state from what could have been a post-flood health disaster.

Is Kerala paying a price for its unregulated, consumerist, and market-driven ‘progress’? This is a question that everyone is forced to ask now in Kerala. Whether any lessons have really been learnt will become clear only in the months and years to come. The UN Report mentioned earlier is unambiguous about this. It has underlined that the post-disaster reconstruction has to be firmly anchored in environmental sustainability along with Kerala’s officially accepted motto of social inclusion. It suggested that Kerala give special attention to what it called the four pillars of sustainable development when it launches the rebuilding of a new Kerala.

Pillar 1 – Integrated water resource management: Given Kerala’s undulating topography, with the Western Ghats forming a little more than half the geographical area with 44 rivers, backwater systems, canals, estuaries and mangroves, not to speak of innumerable other micro water bodies, Kerala has to internalize the idea of ‘Living with Water’ by allowing ‘room for the rivers’. It calls for cross-disciplinary coordination of water, land and related resources. Preparation of basin-wide master plans linking upstream and downstream zones will have to be prioritized. This approach marks a critical departure from the hitherto piecemeal approach based on civil engineering solutions.

 

Pillar 2 – Eco-sensitive and risk informed approaches to land use and settlements: This calls for a scientific zoning of land with locations earmarked for human settlements in place of the existing haphazard construction of residential buildings all over the place including on slopes and in river banks. It also underlines the need for disaster resilient construction techniques. Adoption of a policy for ‘green buildings’ will make a substantial contribution to making Kerala a green state for which a number of alternative approaches and techniques have been developed and tested in the state over the last four decades. Here one must add that there is a rich legacy of local architecture and building construction (including the construction of earthen dams) that is experiencing systematic erosion. Rejuvenation of such green approaches and technologies will certainly create ‘green jobs’ for which skill upgradation and development programmes should be implemented.

Pillar 3 – Inclusive and people-centred approach: Kerala would certainly score high when it comes to social inclusion in a wide range of public services and provisioning. The socially marginalized sections often bear a disproportionate share of environmental disasters as was demonstrated in the Great Kerala Floods of 2018. A comprehensive vulnerability mapping that captures inter-sectoral vulnerabilities has been recommended. The fact that eco-restoration and rejuvenation are intimately linked to livelihood opportunities of the poorer sections have also been brought home by the floods – be it in agriculture, livestock, fishing, and availability of a whole range of bio-raw materials for manufacturing. The recovery and rebuilding process should be able to address this.

An example of it could be the linking of the National Employment Guarantee Scheme with eco-restoration in cleaning up agricultural lands, strengthening river embankments with biotic plants, creating and strengthening local level water control systems, de-silting of backwaters, canals and rivers and so on. Such an approach would also provide opportunities for convergence of a number of state and central government schemes with local panchayat level schemes based on land and water management as well as schemes for agriculture and allied activities.

 

Pillar 4 – Knowledge, innovation and technology: Kerala must realize that knowledge, innovation and technology are vital to address the challenges of sustainable development and climate change that it faces. While there is a certain amount of enthusiasm at the governmental level in welcoming modern technology, the challenge is a willingness to view them through the prism of environmental sustainability and cost effectiveness. Tapping solar energy was a declared policy that has hardly made an imprint in terms of actual adoption. So is the case of adopting green technologies for recovery, recycle and management of wastes. Green technologies for such infrastructure as road construction are yet to make their presence felt. ICTs are currently making a small wave in information gathering, aggregation and matching supply and demand conditions in the realm of environmental sustainability.

The challenge in Kerala, and I suppose in the rest of India as well, is to move beyond the binary discussion of environment or development to one of a debating paradigm for environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive development in this ecologically and socially fissured land.

 

Interestingly, even before the finalization of the UN Report, the chief minister of Kerala declared that the objective of the reconstruction programme is to build a New Kerala (Nava Keralam). Several pre- and post-flood pronouncements of the chief minister and other state functionaries dealt with some of the serious environmental issues such as waste management, reclamation of paddy lands and backwater systems. However, there is deep defiance in recognizing the environmental impacts of large and mega projects. Despite such a mixed message, the LDF Manifesto of 2016 was impressive in its promises in incorporating several of the suggestions of the civil society to address a number of environmental issues and challenges. I have summarized them in the box given here to remind the powers that be that most of these are yet to be translated into action.³ Even if half of them are implemented it will definitely launch Kerala onto a much needed path of environmentally sustainable development. However, it remains to be seen whether this talk will be matched by the walk.

 

Footnotes:

1. United Nations, Government of Kerala and European Commission, Kerala: Post Disaster Assessment Needs: Floods and Landslides August 2018. October 2018. The author was a member of this UN team.

2. The National Disaster Response Force deployed 207 boats with 58 teams, the Indian Army deployed 104 boats with 23 columns, the Navy deployed 94 boats with 94 rescue teams and equipment, the Coast Guard deployed 76 boats with 36 teams.

3. On coming to power in mid2016, the LDF government created a Green Kerala Mission with a limited mandate to advise and coordinate activities and chalk out new initiatives in the areas of waste management, water resource protection and agriculture. Laudable as it is, this initiative covers only a very small number of the election promises that we have summarized in the box.