Onam of tears for flood-hit Kerala

Onam is called Kerala’s ‘national festival’ but it is going to be an Onam of tears for the Keralites this year in the context of the unprecedented deluge which had claimed nearly 250 lives in less than a fortnight even as the State Government stepped up the task of cleaning up the houses and public places which had been inundated and now filled with sludge, slush and debris as the floodwaters receded further on Thursday.

It is not yet clear how many of the more-than 13 lakh flood-hit people lodged at the 3,200 relief camps will return to their houses on time for Thiruvonam, the most important day of the Onam festival which falls on Saturday. Even if they go home, there is nothing left there for them to celebrate the festival. And for thousands, there are no homes to return to.

“There is no Onam this year. In fact, there will be no Onam for us for many years to come considering the situation we are in,” Savithri, a mother of two who has lost her house and everything in it, said outside a relief camp in Paravur, a region near Kochi that had been ravaged by the waters of the swollen river Periyar.

Reports from markets across the State indicate that there is a drop by at least 70 per cent in business this season compared to last Onam. Traders in almost all sectors –textiles, jewelry, home appliances, white goods, automobiles, etc – who have packed their shelves with huge stocks expecting brisk Onam sales, are set to suffer heavy losses.

Sources in marketing departments of media houses said many clients had withdrawn the space and time-slot bookings they had placed for advertisements for Onam season following the flood. “There was a 30 per cent rise in bookings for this Onam compared to the last season. But now the cancellations are at about 45 per cent,” said the marketing head of a TV channel.

Faced with a huge drop in business, many trading firms have stepped up ad campaigns by extending the special Onam offers they had put forward with the hope of clearing their stocks without much loss after the festival. “Since almost a quarter of the population has been hit by the floods directly and indirectly, even that strategy is unlikely to succeed,” he said.

Traders in areas that had not been hit by the disaster also reported huge drops in business. The Government had last week announced the cancellation of the official State-wide Onam celebrations in the wake of the floods. Many regional associations and clubs also have cancelled their special Onam programmes.

Meanwhile, the Government has intensified the cleaning operations at houses and public places by setting up a control room for coordinating the process as more flood-hit people began leaving relief camps for their homes. Local administration bodies have been assigned the task of managing the exercise.

Almost all the houses that have not been destroyed totally in the floods in affected areas have been rendered unlivable with thick deposits of sludge and slime brought in by flood waters from swollen rivers. Several regions of at least eight districts have been ravaged by the floods caused by incessant rains between August 8 and 19.

The Haritha Kerala Mission, a Government programme coordinating waste management, organic farming, water resources management and river rejuvenation, has been entrusted with the charge of the cleaning operation. The mission is expected to deploy dozens of high-power pump-sets in flooded areas by Friday as part of the operation.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday assured the flood-affected people that the Government would provide everything they needed to rebuild their lives and homes.  “The Government will take all necessary measures to rehabilitate the affected people,” he said during a visit to a relief camp at Paravur.

“The situation is that nothing is left at their homes for those who are returning from the camps. They will be given every help they need to start a new life. The Government will take steps to rebuild for them whatever they have lost. Houses will be built for those who have lost them. Repair works will be done on damaged houses to make them livable,” he said.

The Chief Minister visited several relief camps in some of the worst-affected regions of the State – Chengannur in Alappuzha district, Kozhenchery in Pathanamthitta, Paravur in Ernakulam and Chalakkudy in Thrissur district – and interacted with the flood-affected people lodged there.