Holding a video conference with district collectors and officials of Kollam, Kottayam and Alappuzha, Kerala CM guided them to guarantee the availability of drinking water in Kuttanad, one of the most badly-hit regions where the Navy on 23 July joined the relief operations.
Kerala state faced the severest flood in recent times, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on 23 July as he took stock of the flood situation in parts of the state following the monsoon violence that has claimed 49 lives this month alone.
Holding a video conference with district collectors and officials of Kollam, Kottayam and Alappuzha, CM guided them to guarantee the availability of drinking water in Kuttanad, one of the most badly-hit regions where the Navy on 23 July joined the relief operations.
According to official reports, CM said the government was capable of providing relief and support to rain-affected people in a better way, taking steps to reach necessary relief materials to people staying in camps and their deserted houses.
He also asked for the co-operation and support of society in taking the flood situation, telling the whole state should come forward in taking up hygiene work once the water recedes to prevent the outbreak of diseases.
He promised that sufficient measures would be taken to ensure supply of cooking gas cylinders in flood-affected areas and said the Chief Secretary had been instructed to take necessary action in this respect.
The rains have claimed 49 lives since 9 July, in the second phase of the south-west monsoon, and nearly 1.10 lakh people were still staying in 486 make-shift relief camps mostly in worst affected Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts. Officials at the State Control room monitoring the rain situation said crops in about 1,202 hectares had been damaged. Flood water was yet to settle in low-lying Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. A total of 84,618 people were in 271 relief camps in Alappuzha only. In Kottayam, 17,034 people were in 110 camps.
Disaster relief teams comprising 30 personnel from the Southern Naval Command reached out to areas cut-off by flood waters in Kuttanad and some parts of Kottayam district. The Navy team also cleared the clogged waterways and created an outlet for the floodwater. Even though the rains have decreased, the worst flood that affected the Kuttanad region has made life miserable for more than thousands of stranded people.
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