On August 5 evening, as the water running down the Wagamon hills turned brown, Jisoy Thomas, a panchayat member from Adivaram in the valley, relayed an alert message on his smart phone. “It's raining heavily in the high ranges,” the message read.
The warning, posted in the chat group ‘Save Meenachilar’ at 4.15 p.m, quickly drew some reactions. The group was soon buzzing with updates, photos and videos of the Meenachil coming in from different locations.
Then the flood came, breaching the river banks, farmlands and beyond, faster and more furious with time. The updates on the water level too kept flowing in, from different locations along the course of the Meenachil.
At one point, the run-off water breached the previous peak, recorded during the mega floods in 2018. The impact, however, was much lesser as those along the river banks had already been served the warning.
Thanks to an alert group of ‘river-reporters’, who alongside the district administration, gave the public continuous updates on the height of the floodwater in Meenachil, the location-wise problems, and the risk elements.
The network, which functions as a support system to the Meenachil River Protection Council, comprise people from all walks of life including environmentalists, local body representatives, government officials, and even scientists. “The collaboration stretches from the origin of the Meenachil in Kolahalamedu hill till its end at Kumarakom,” said Eby Emmanuel, general secretary of the organisation.
Formed to highlight issues like sand mining and encroachments on the Meenachil’s banks, the collective has been into flood-reporting for the third straight monsoon. “The updates from the high-lands are so crucial in planning the rescue operations down stream. Based on it, our president S. Ramachandran would come up with flood forecasts in every hour,” explained Mr. Immanuel.
Gopu Nattassery, a group member, said the flood reporting by the group facilitated the evacuation of several families from Kottayam to Thiruvarppu. “Based on their predictions, we could alert the Fire and Rescue Department about the impending flood situation at the Koshamattom colony, leading to evacuation of 190 families,” he said.
Reporting exclusively on the Meenachil for the last four years, the group seeks to formalise the collaboration with government support at different levels. Its proposal to organise public hearings on the 78-km-long river, based on these reports, still awaits an official nod.
