Even six days after Cyclone Michaung crossed Tamil Nadu’s state borders, the lives of those residing in a slum settlement in Ramadoss Nagar in Chennai’s Old Washermenpet are still in disarray. When TNM visited the densely populated settlement on Monday, December 11, we found that inside some houses rainwater mixed with sewage was still stagnating and the residents were heavily dependent on volunteers for supply of essentials.
Murugesan, a resident, told TNM, “It will take at least another 10 days for normalcy to return to our slum. Till now, the Corporation has not taken any efforts to help pump water out from our area.” He added that they had to wait for the waist-level water to recede by itself. “The water receded completely only after five days, which was on December 8. After that, we residents ourselves removed the water from inside our houses with buckets and pots,” he said.
Lissy (name changed), another resident, said, “I have drained out the water from my house with buckets but more water keeps entering because there is a cemetery adjacent to our slum. The water retained at the cemetery keeps entering my house which is comparatively low-lying.” Since December 4, Lissy, her children, and her pregnant sister-in-law have been camping at her neighbour’s cement house which has been constructed at a raised level.
Almost all the children in the settlement, including Lissy’s, did not attend school on December 11, the day educational institutions across the city reopened after a week. “Their uniforms and books have all been ruined by the floods. We can’t send them until the government reissues them as promised. We have informed their teachers about the situation,” Lissy told TNM.
Activist Vikas who visited the settlement and helped arrange aid on December 9 told TNM, “When I visited, I learnt that no relief had reached them yet. Even the garbage was not cleared from the locality and their roads and homes were not sanitised. The residents were very angry with the government.” Vikas along with other volunteers have since been arranging essential food items and mats for the residents.
When TNM visited, garbage had been cleared off the main street and the entrance to the slum alone was disinfected. This was done because DMK cadres were set to arrive on that day – almost six days after rains stopped lashing the city – to deliver relief materials. Tokens had been distributed to the residents for the same.
Kala, a resident, expressed dissatisfaction with the relief materials provided. “They gave us a little rice, one small towel, and one bedsheet. For this, they had us standing in long lines. We can purchase the same rice with our ration cards. We are in need of other essentials like mats because many of our houses have mud flooring and the mud is still wet. How can we use bedsheets on the wet mud floor?” she asked. Other residents expressed similar sentiments.
Citing that water was yet to be cleared from all the houses and that sanitising and mosquito fogging is due, Murugasen said that four people were down with fever and some others have been taken to a hospital run by a trust in Ramadoss Nagar with complaints of diarrhoea. “I have a feeling that I will also develop a fever or some illness in the coming days if sanitising our locality is not prioritised,” he said.