The challenges in Chennai
VANI DORAISAMY
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Relief for the affected has been beset with unforeseen problems
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HEAVY HAUL OF PROBLEMS: Officials maintain that not much can be done for the fishermen until they are willing to relocate. PHOTO: BIJOY GHOSH
A ll that Duraiarasan (70), one of the elders in the fishing community at Srinivasapuram in Foreshore Estate, Chennai remembers of December 26, 2004, is the wildly excited shouts of a group of boys as they rushed towards the surging waves rather than away from it.
The rest is a blank.
"If only we had lived a little further from the sea as we did 10 years ago, many lives could have been saved. As concrete buildings came up along the seafront blocking our access, we were forced to move closer to the sea. The waves came quicker than we could run," he says.
For officials, Srinivasapuram poses a daunting challenge, as the fishermen are refusing to give up their seafront homes and move to the Corporation's temporary shelters in faraway Kannagi Nagar near Okkiyam Thoraipakkam. Officials maintain that not much can be done for the fishermen until they agree to relocate.
The result: a slew of bad debts, rampant penury and a destroyed community.
This is the hamlet that suffered the worst: of the 206 felled by the waves, most were from here. Of the 17,805 huts destroyed — according to official estimates — 4,085 were from here, followed by 3,296 in Beach Kuppam and 1,040 in Mullaima Nagar. Around 3,000 families were torn asunder.
Relief for the affected in Chennai has been beset with unforeseen problems. At the two clusters of temporary shelters — in Kargil Nagar in north Chennai and Kannagi Nagar in south Chennai — a mysterious fire ravaged all 2,142 dwellings in the former while monsoon floods inundated the 1,300 units in the latter.
One disaster to another
"We have been going from one disaster to another, all within one year," says R. Santhanam, Special Commissioner for Relief, "First the tsunami, then the fire and then the floods. Our resources have been stretched to the maximum but we seem to have coped creditably. In the end, what matters are the lessons that everybody learnt."
The most prickly issue is housing. As the city did not have a village administrative officer who could enumerate affected families or a fisheries registry of catamarans, fibre reinforced plastic boats or mechanised boats, officials say many bogus claims were made, leading to endless hair-splitting and a very unhappy fishermen community. Unlike other coastal districts, fishing activity here is yet to pick up.
Officials are hoping things work themselves out. "A total of 7,260 permanent shelters have been planned for north Chennai and 10,000 for south Chennai. All of them will be completed in a year and there will be a visible difference in the lives of the fishermen," Mr. Santhanam says.
Meanwhile, the deadlock continues.
TSUNAMI A YEAR AFTER
