Once again, the Ernakulam district’s coastal population is protesting because of the increasing incursion of sea water. Among these were hundreds, many of who elderly adults, who blocked the Fort Kochi-Alapuzha coastal State Highway at Kannamaly coast from about 6 a.m. on Friday.
The Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi organized the siege, which is spearheading protests in all parts of the district’s coast calling for a permanent solution to this problem. The most recent protest follows a similar one in which the Vypeen-Munambam State Highway was blocked by Edavanakkad residents, another coastal village on June 27th over the same matter.
“We have not yet decided when to end this protest. We are holding this road hostage until Ernakulam Minister P Rajeeve, Roshy Augustine Water Resources Minister or even Chief Minister himself comes to intervene and ensure that it will be sorted out permanently,” said V.T. Sebastian convener of Janakeeya Vedhi.
In 2021the government provided administrative approval for construction activity involving granite walls and tetrapod type blocks from CMS bridge covering ten kilometers: six groynes near Velankanni and nine in Puthenthode-Kannamaly were also included in this project; Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had given ₹344.2 crores towards this project.
However, only 7.36 km worth of work has been completed by now apart from claims that money allocated towards completing this work has been completely exhausted after construction had finished at wall extending to 7.36km as well as building six sea groynes.
“The half-baked work has only worsened the problem further with even those houses, which were not previously affected are getting inundated even in relatively small waves. With drains filled to brimming point and canals encroached upon there is no outlet for the invading water from the populated areas. A walk on the coast in Kannamaly shows how houses are damaged, mud-deposited and increasingly being deserted by owners,” said Joyce Babu, a resident of Kannamaly who shifted to higher grounds in her ancestral home about a month ago due to sea incursion.
There is an increasing trend of more people leaving their homes to rent outside because of this persisting problem. She remembered that when her family bought land in Kannamaly two decades back, the place was not affected. The protest did not just happen overnight but it was after authorities consistently ignored their plight that forced residents into taking such action, stated Ms. Babu.
