ENVISAGING POST-FLOOD REBUILDING IN KERALA-1

With little regard to people who warned us of climate change and environmental insensitivity, we, in Kerala filled up our wetlands, denuded the green cover, encroached our flood plains, filled large swathes of our backwater systems, replaced dense forests with cash crops, filled paddy fields, and choked drainage channels by dumping garbage and encroaching. A few days of unending rains gave us a flood that we never believed would ever occur here.

As the shock of the event unfolded, our people came together, burying our differences and staved off the tragedy with a camaraderie that’s envied by the world. We need to make good use of the opportunity brought in by the crisis, to do some critical appraisal of our attitude towards the way we conduct our lives in this unique ecological zone called Kerala.

One of our poor qualities has been our lack of respect for our own institutions; especially institutions embedded in specific sciences, like National Centre of Earth Science Studies, Geological Survey of India, etc. A very long list it would be, indeed. The fact remains that the quality of research produced in such places are of exceptional quality, but, conditions on real firm ground, would suggest that as a society we have poor knowledge base.

Take for instance, the state of our roads. We have numerous Engineering institutions with highly qualified engineers and well-equipped laboratories that can study the soil conditions and make recommendations for roads that can survive for decades with little or damage under severe conditions. But, the quality of our roads would suggest that we do not have the competence or resources to build good roads. The failure lies in the inability of the system to accommodate the knowledge that’s inherent in the Institutions to be part of the service delivery of the governance mechanism. A disconnect that is consciously ignored by the bureaucracy. Such conditions often leave the poor state of our roads open to criticism and some well-meaning activism by various agencies. We would have local traders, film actors, trade unionists, residents’ associations etc volunteering to fill up pot-holes to make the road more usable. Most such interventions earn short term appreciation while leading to long term damage due to the lack of any scientific basis to such well-meaning, good intentions. The root cause remains the lack of respect for our institutions shown by our own governance system and our inability to put to use, their real competence.

But post-flood, there has been an order brought out by the Additional Secretary to the Govt, Disaster Management (A) Department, GO (MS) No.20/2018/DMD dated 07/09/2018 that shows a completely different spirit.  Firstly, it acknowledges in its order that institutions like NCESS, GSI etc are in working relationship with the government and are the stated authority to produce assessment reports of the floods. It goes on to state further that, The Govt. of Kerala & KSDMA will accept only one report with recommendations and one set of maps as prepared and approved by the ‘Regional Committee for Scientific Assessment of Flood Prone Areas’.

In the same order, lies another statement, “KSDMA will launch a crowd sourcing platform for availing grass-root level data of inundation depths and landslide locations with the help of a Start Up Mission approved StartUp.”  This statement, particularly heralds a completely new take on how a government can not only depend on its own institutions, but also, simultaneously take in real time data from open general sources; in this case, to fill in “grass-root level” information. The fact that Information Technology (IT) with its wide reach into the citizenry is being considered a participatory component in the governance mechanism offers a huge template for public engagement in the governance process. This has far reaching repercussions in the context of the 74^th Constitutional Amendment and our Peoples Planning Initiative.

That is an entirely new segment that needs to be explored and employed by the government very earnestly.

Once these government institutions table their reports with maps and recommendations, the government will have to act on those recommendations. It goes without saying that not all the recommendations will be considered popular, especially with elections around the corner. This will open up the usual debate of “Development Vs Ecology” all over again. This is a wrong question. There is no football match between Development and Ecology. We cannot take sides here. This topic needs to be re-framed.

What we need is a “Manifesto for Life within the Ecological region called Kerala”. In order to get this Manifesto correct, we need to create a wide consultation process that is first and foremost out-in-the-open, transparent and evolving. The government itself has shown us the initial template through that order we discussed. We need to engage the Institutions, Political parties, Bureaucracy and the civil society/ citizenry etc in not only creating the Manifesto, but also in trying to keep it relevant through live modification as needs and aspirations evolve.

Post-flood rebuilding is new to us, but in itself, is not a new process. There are many places in the world that have faced such conditions and we can learn from their experiences while accommodating such ideas to our context.

There are primarily two major aspects to this process. Land-use planning and the regulatory mechanism. While Land-sue planning sets the physical agenda, the regulatory mechanism ensures its implementation. Neither of them is easy to change from the already existing formats without dramatic political will and public acceptance.

Objectives of land-use planning would be to:

• Frequency of flooding predicted by the Institutions must be given due diligence
• Minimise development in flood prone zones
•  Restoration of reclaimed land to the river
• Accommodate urban growth in flood-safe zones
• Manage open space systems effectively
• Increase water retention capacity of major water bodies, wetlands, open spaces

Development Plan objectives shall:

• ·        Each Level-of-risk-zone to have different land-use strategies appropriate to the zone.
• ·        Promote better and more resilient construction practices
• ·        Create a green network involving parks, wetlands, storm water storage and harvesting.
• ·        Build multifunctional community safe houses for high-risk areas that cannot be resettled, like for Kuttanad.
• ·        Mark a regulatory flood protection level/ height in affected areas.
• ·        Accommodate location specific solutions within the larger plan.

Regulatory mechanism would have to ensure:

• ·        Implement zoning based on risk assessment, geology and water system-based management plans
• ·        Prioritize all public investments in infrastructure including transportation, housing, community facilities, heritage management and economic development based on such zoning.
• ·        Use economic instruments like tax incentives, land-based finance, Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) etc to achieve the desired spread of densities.
• ·        Influence community behaviour through information dissemination.
• ·        Use participatory planning mechanism to create local development plans
• ·        Educating people about flood risk management.
• ·        Employ local technical support in planning and design of Local Development Plans as they will be available all year round unlike one-time external consultancies. Indian Institute of Architects (IIA), Institute of Urban Designers India (IUDI), Indian Society of Landscape Architects (ISOLA), School of Marine Sciences, School of Environmental Studies etc are organisations present in Kerala with very specialised skills that must be tapped into.
• ·        Land tenure related issues must be addressed and accommodated with the participation of the ward-level elected representatives.
• ·        Flood risk knowledge base must be constantly updated. Community participation in the development process has to be strengthened by co-opting groups like Kudumbasree units.

This may have been a once-in-a-century flooding caused due to the coming together of various factors or it could also be a warning of things to come more frequently in the future due to climate change and poor land management. In either case, we ought to increase the resilience of our region for the safety, well-being and prosperity of our people. Now, is the right time for us to come together, to revamp and reinvent our future.