The Kerala Sashtra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) on Saturday flagged what it described as acute scarcity of drinking water, food and medicines in monsoon-ravaged Kuttanad.
In a petition to the government, the Parishad said large tracts of land in Alappuzha were still under water.
People and livestock were marooned in their homes, surrounded by miles of flooded plains. They jostled for dry space with poisonous snakes and other vermin. An epidemic outbreak was imminent. The government should stock anti-venom injections. It should keep ambulance boats on the standby to rush aid.
The trapped residents had little access to food, medicines, doctors, cooking fuel and other essential amenities. Sewage-contaminated storm waters posed a substantial public health risk.
The situation in Kuttanad was starkly different from other flood-hit districts. Water was yet to recede from the flatlands and paddies. The deluge of rain that hit Kerala with a rare ferocity at the tail end of the southwest monsoon season has laid to waste entire pastoral neighbourhoods. The hundreds housed in relief camps have lost their houses and savings.
It required a mammoth civic effort and public spending to make the localities habitable again. There should be no hurry in returning residents to their homes from relief camps.