Kerala CM Satheesan Visits Flood-Hit Areas, Announces Resilience Plan

Pathanamthitta: Kerala Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Tuesday visited flood-hit areas in the district and announced Rs 10,000 in financial assistance for households whose homes were flooded by the recent rains.

He also said the government was considering setting up a disaster management and resilience system to improve early warnings for sudden weather changes.

"The government will provide Rs 10,000 as financial assistance to people whose homes were flooded due to the rains," the CM said.

Speaking to reporters here, the CM said the disaster management and resilience system would be developed with the support of expert agencies and artificial intelligence and would function as an early warning mechanism.

"More rain gauge systems, both manual and AI-enabled, will be set up. There are reputed expert agencies, such as the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology and Cochin University, working in the field of climate change. Their expertise will also be utilised to develop an effective climate forecasting and early warning system, which will be implemented as a pilot project in Pathanamthitta district," he said.

He said the challenge at present was that cloudbursts or extremely heavy rainfall often occurred without warning, leaving little time to evacuate people to safety.

"Very heavy rainfall is occurring over short periods. Usually, rainfall exceeding 200 mm is classified as extremely heavy, but this time some places received as much as 340 mm of rainfall," the CM said.

He said another major reason for flooding in many places was landslides and landslips inside forests.

"We were fortunate that the loss of life was limited," he said, while confirming that seven persons were still missing following the heavy rains.

Satheesan said the proposed disaster management and resilience system, which he said would be the most effective in the country, would be taken up after examining all aspects, including landslides and landslips inside forests.

He attributed the floods to the accumulation of silt in riverbeds, alleging that desilting had not been carried out since 2019.

He said the recent floods would also result in debris accumulating in riverbeds, reducing their carrying capacity.

"It will lead to flooding or waterlogging even during moderate rainfall," Satheesan said.

He said the government would not wait for another flood to take action, as no desilting exercise had been carried out over the past several years.

Urgent steps would be taken to desilt rivers across the state, with priority being given to Pathanamthitta district, where several areas, such as Thiruvalla, Ranni and Aranmula, continued to remain flooded, he said.

The CM said the situation was being closely monitored and all necessary arrangements had been made for relief and rescue operations.

As part of these measures, NDRF, police, Fire and Rescue Services and RDF teams had been deployed.

Two helicopters had been arranged for aerial supply of essential materials, while boats had also been deployed for relief and rescue operations in flooded areas, he said.

He said the required officials would be deployed, medical check-ups would be conducted in all relief camps, and arrangements had been made to supply materials for chlorinating well water in flood-affected areas.

Additionally, the government had given the district administration full authority to spend whatever funds were required for the relief efforts, and directions had been issued to ensure clean and hygienic food was supplied in relief camps.

"Where toilets are unavailable, bio-toilets are being arranged, and proper lighting as well as police presence is being ensured in the camps," he added.