Kochi: Even as climate change has become a reality for the authorities to tackle with and the city residents are facing its impacts, the series of programmes announ-ced by the Kochi Corporation for climate change mitigation remain on paper. Funds have also been allocated for few of them. Though the Corporation has initiated a canal restoration project, under Centre funded AMRUT, it has reached nowhere.
Since various agencies have stressed the need to conserve and rejuvenate the existing canal system to prevent flooding due to climate change, the corporation has proposed massive canal restoration project. Mapping of the Thevara - Perandoor Canal was completed spending `35 lakh.
“Kochi has 18 canals and proper management of these water bodies assumes great significance in preventing flooding. Being a coastal city, Kochi needs a well planned urban water body management policy. Unfortunately, there is no custodian for conserving canals and no coordination between various government departme-nts which are involved. A disaster preparedness plan and canal management system is what Kochi needs immediately,” said Dr. Sunny George, director of SCMS Water Institute. The Institute has conducted the mapping of TP Canal. `22 crore has been allocated under AMRUT for restoration of TP Canal. But the work has not yet started.
Earlier, Indian Instit-ute of Technology Roorkee had conducted a fact-finding study on the vulnerability of the fragile urban system of Kochi and submitted the report to the civic administration, but no follow-up measures have been taken to implement the recommendations.
As per the Internat-ional Council for Local Environmental Initia-tives (ICLEL) assessment, Kochi is in the frontline of the country’s seaside cities that can potentially be affected by climate change, mostly in the form of inundation due to sea level rise.
Change in rainfall pattern and increase in temperature will badly impact the city and pose additional pressure on the already fragile urban system, according to expert agencies.
