Latha Sankarankutty had moved out to a rescue camp during the Kerala floods of 2018. She used to live in a little shed in Nedumudi of Alappuzha district which was washed away in the persistent rains. By the time she returned from the camp in Cherthala, there was nothing left of her home.
A daily wage labourer and member of the state’s women empowerment programme- Kudumbashree, Latha became one of the 450 or so poverty-ridden people to get new flood-resistant houses built by the District Administration and Kudumbashree.
The district administration had then undertaken a programme called ‘I am for Alleppey’, doing rehabilitation work in the aftermath of the most horrible floods in the state since 1924.
Latha’s new home was built on a raised platform, to prevent the water from coming into the house. Two years later when once again the state is going through bad weather Latha has a message for the then sub collector who took the initiative to build her a home. “Sir, my house is not flooded.”
Moved, Krishna Teja, who is now managing director of KTDC (Kerala Tourism Development Corporation), wrote on Facebook, “She (Latha) is one of the 450+ beneficiaries who received a house as a part of #IAmForAlleppey campaign. It’s a conscious decision by us to construct all the houses under this campaign as flood resilient and exactly after one year here is the outcome.”
Speaking to TNM, Krishna Teja says that in addition to the houses, they had built anganwadis and schools, all following the same principle. “The foundation is raised by one to two metres, based on the flood levels in 2018. We hope that such houses can become shelters to others whose homes get flooded in the neighbourhood.”
Latha, a mother of three daughters, is living alone in her new home, with her elder children married and living away and the youngest studying in Pune. “It is this February that we had the house warming. There is still water outside the house, with the bunds falling, but it’s dry inside,” Latha says. She has been unable to go to work after COVID-19 struck the state earlier this year.
“My daughters could not come here either. I last saw them and my grandchildren for the house warming ceremony. They planned to come again for the summer holidays but by then there was COVID-19,” Latha says.
A year ago, another such house in Alappuzha municipality’s Palace ward was also in the news for being able to provide shelter to those in flooded homes living nearby. “Palace ward is one of the most affected areas during the floods. Everyone ends up moving out to camps or relatives’ place. Babu of Palace ward lost his little shed of a home in the 2018 floods. There was water everywhere. Krishna Teja sir, on seeing it, said he should be one of the beneficiaries who got new flood-resistant houses. Babu’s house was able to shelter several others whose homes were flooded in 2019,” says Jisna, block coordinator, Kudumbashree.
Kudumbashree in Alappuzha district built 121 flood-resistant houses for those who had lost them in the 2018 floods, with funds from the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad.