The exodus to various relief camps in Ernakulam district continued as the number of inmates sheltered in the camps went up from the previous day’s count of 1.80 lakh to 2.61 lakh on Sunday evening, despite showers being few and far between and water levels receding.
At last count, 65,590 displaced families are being sheltered in 733 relief camps across the district.
At 171, Paravur taluk has the largest number of camps with 51,150 members from 14,600 displaced families while Kanayannur taluk has 164 camps with 30,347 inmates from 5,069 families. Aluva taluk has 129 camps with 35,400 people from 8,060 families, while Muvattupuzha and Kunnathunadu have with 88 camps each and 22,901 inmates from 6,092 families and 36,420 inmates from 7,763 families respectively.
In Kochi taluk, there are 65 camps with 80,245 people from 22,588 families and Kothamangalam has 28 camps with 5,171 people from 1,418 families.
K. Rajamanickam, who is one of the two senior civil service officials entrusted with supervising relief and rescue measures in the district, said except for a few pockets, the situation had improved significantly with many areas now accessible through road.
“Now we will have to focus on health and sanitation aspects for which cleaning materials are being collected. We are trying to draw up a database of volunteers to assist the local bodies in the sanitation campaign,” he said.
In the heavily-battered Aluva taluk, water level continued to recede as steadily as it had risen even as Parakkadavu, Poovathussery, and Moozhikkulam were among the few areas that remained inundated.
The badly flooded stretches of the national highway at Companyppady and Ambattukkavu fully emerged out of the water after remaining submerged for four days since last Thursday.
Some of the camp residents have begun returning home and cleaning their houses on their own.
“The biggest hiccup is the power outage for the last few days because of which mobile network connectivity has been badly hit. We are not even able to contact our village officers and collate basic information,” said a senior Revenue official.
In Angamaly
Roji M. John, Angamaly MLA, visited marooned areas within his constituency on a tipper lorry. He had to make a detour and reach there through areas in Irinjalakuda and Mala. “Clean drinking water remains the biggest crisis even in relief camps in inaccessible areas. Earlier people used to collect rainwater, but with rain subsiding that source no longer exists. While the situation has improved and many stranded people have been rescued, areas such as Parakkadavu, Poovathussery, Aiyiroor, Kuthiyathodu, Manjali, Paravur, Chettikkulam remain inaccessible,” he said.
Kunnathunadu tahsildar Sabu K. Isaac said the situation had significantly improved with water level dropping considerably in the badly affected panchayats of Okkal, Koovappady and Vengoor. “However, it is not easy to return home yet since a massive sanitation campaign will have to be undertaken.”
Muvattupuzha taluk
The situation has improved in Muvattupuzha taluk as well where the worst-hit Muvattupuzha town, Velloorkkunnam, Kadathi, Ramamangalam, and Vazhoor remained out of danger. A meeting of all stakeholders would be held on Monday to draw up sanitation plans, said tahsildar P.S. Madhusoodanan.
In Kochi taluk, water has receded from the badly-hit coastal villages of Pallippuram, Vypeen, Kuzhipully, and Edavanakkad though there were reports of high tide leading to water intrusion in Kumbalanghi. Several camp inmates, including those from Varapuzha rehabilitated in the taluk, had started returning home, said tahsildar K.V. Ambrose.