Save Valiyathura campaign gains momentum

Thiruvananthapuram: Coastal residents lining up under ‘Save Valiyathura’ campaign are demanding permanent solutions to sea erosion rather than the temporary shifting of families and promises of sea wall construction.
Around 200 youngsters from the coasts of Valiyathura marched from Priyadarshini Nagar, Valiyathura to the Aarattu Mandapam at Shanghumugham on Saturday evening. Members of the campaign said that while walls and groynes offered relief to the affected area, the regions north to the barriers (Valiyathope and Sanghumugham) would still be prone to sea erosion.
According to Valiyathura St. Antony’s church vicar Fr. Melkon J, the residents of Valiyathura are currently on a struggle to survive. “Survival happens when you fight against all odds that life throws at you. We are born as fishermen and it is our mother, the sea, who provides us with daily bread. We once had a coast of around 200m. The sea always advanced during monsoons but the monsoon is still a few months away. In the past five years, around 250 houses were lost to the sea and unless something is done, more houses will be lost,” he said.
Marine researcher and founding director of Friends of Marine Life (FML) Robert Panipilla said that a permanent solution like the offshore breakwater implemented in Chennai could help regain the coast by allowing the sea to accrete eroded sand back into the coast. “A two-metre sea wall could help defend against five-metre waves few years ago but today even a two-metre wave causes heavy damage. It is high time that we think beyond sea walls and groynes for solutions,” he said.
According to social activist Vijayan A J, Vizhinjam port and the addition of groynes and sea walls have made it impossible for sand accretion in many areas. “Dredging and creation of artificial berth for Vizhinjam Port has largely contributed to the current state,” he said.
The march which began from Valiyathura concluded at Shanghumugham by 8pm.