To contain and manage the woes of natural calamities

Grama panchayats in the State are preparing a participatory local area climate action plan that would equip local bodies to contain and manage the woes of natural calamities in the wake of climate change.

Well before the State faced the devastating deluge, the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) had launched a three-pronged initiative with the technical support and guidance of a host of scientific institutions such as Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Cochin University of Science and Technology, and Indian Meteorological Department at four hotspot districts such as Idukki, Wayanad, Alappuzha and Palakkad.

Depending on the nature of the panchayats and the challenges they are striving to grapple with, local bodies in Alappuzha are being supported to prepare a coastal action plan, in Idukki and Wayanad a plan to avoid and tackle landslips and a heat action plan for the panchayats in Palakkad district.

Several rounds of orientation sessions were conducted and training imparted to resource persons from the panchayats to prepare such plans which will take into consideration the weather conditions for the next 50 years to address drought, rainfall, topography, soil texture and disasters.

Representatives from 270 panchayats had joined the programme and were working in full swing with the institute when the monsoon and deluge derailed normal life in the State.

“In the wake of the floods, we have resolved to make fresh additions to the programme and empower them to handle such calamities with poise. Since residential and other buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure facilities have been washed away in the flood, the programme would lay accent on a new building protocol using locally available material, reduce carbon emission and have a new ecosystem through novel greening techniques. Other than the institutions, we are getting the technical assistance of Climate Change Innovation Programme, an initiative supported by the UK government,” said KILA director Joy Elamon.

The trained resource persons will conduct field studies and interact with the trainers and experts who lend technical support for the programme and they would give creative inputs to prepare and modulate annual Plans in their respective local bodies. Now, an intensive training programme would be worked out to help the resource persons join the reconstruction activities.