While the Orange Book issued by the State Disaster Management Authority paints a well-planned picture, the preparations are hit by practical road blocks. One such among the many are the requirements for relief camps.

As per the Orange book at least four buildings have to be identified and kept ready at short notice by the local self-government bodies to be used as relief camps.

Building 1: General Relief Camp

Building 2: For people aged above 60 years, people ailing from non COVID-19 diseases

Building 3: For people with COVID-19 like symptoms. The rooms should have attached bathrooms.

Building 4: For people who are in home quarantine. The rooms should have attached bathrooms.

Building 1 & 2 should ideally be in the same place while building 3 & 4 should be in a separate location.

“How are we to get such buildings in a rural area?” asks another village officer falling under Chalakudy who did not want to be named.

“We don’t have sufficient structures meeting the criteria,” agrees Antony.

“Floods can be easily handled. Corona makes things difficult,” he says.

And that is not just because of the fear of spread of the pandemic. The village officer expresses fear that the pandemic may well put an end to the people’s participation which so characterised the rescue and relief efforts in the preceding years.

“It was the people who headed everything. Administration alone cannot do much,” says Antony.

“If there is flooding alone, people are enthusiastic and energetic to help each other out. Everyone is pumped up and it makes things much easier for the administration,” says Antony. “But with the pandemic we are unsure how people may respond.”

Adding to this uncertainty are conditions laid down in the Orange Book regarding rescuing of people who are under home quarantine.

As per the Orange Book, local self-government bodies have to keep lists of those under home quarantine and rescuing of such people has to be done by a team which includes health workers.

“There might be practical problems,” says deputy collector of Thrissur, MC Rejil, who is in charge of overseeing the disaster management in the district. “As of now we have no problems. Monsoon is yet to gain strength and so the problems are also in the future as of now,” he says.

“The present situation in Thrissur at least is that we have deficit rains. So hopefully for flooding and inundation, we may not face it. We have identified 809 camp buildings in the district to be converted if any situation arises. For now, the risks of landslides are a bigger priority as well as the sea surges in coastal areas. We are preparing ourselves to face these in the coming days. The Orange Book prescribes ideal protocols. If difficulties are faced in matching up to the requirements, plans with resources at hand will guide the decision making,” he says.

Shyju CA, village officer of Kizhakke Chalakudy, which includes Chalakudy town which went under the deluge in 2018 and falling on the opposite side of Meloor agrees that they can only do what is possible.

“We have identified hostels, lodges and such buildings in the town to be used as camps for those under home quarantine in low lying areas if needed to be used. Some of these are in the town itself. So if a 2018 like situation were to arise, we may well have to change them,” he said.

“We have prepared our First Line Treatment Centre at St James Academy. In previous years, the relief camps in the church school and east school had to be shifted with rising waters. These are situations which can arise and we are aware of them. The least we can say is that we are all prepared at an initial level,” he said.

Out of the four wards under containment in Chalakudy, four have been affected by floods previously. Shyju says the Panchayat has chalked out scenarios.

“If it is a flood like that happened in 2019, we may not have much problems. Only the three wards through which the river flows will face difficulties. As of now we have no camps running as there is no flooding anywhere. Meetings have been held, volunteer lists prepared, ambulance, JCB and other such numbers updated and kept ready at disposal. As for buildings 3 & 4 we do have buildings which had already been identified for institutional quarantine purposes of those coming from outside Kerala. Now with home quarantine being allowed, we have them freed up. Collector can also order taking over of buildings if a need were to arise. So these are what we are looking at right now. We have a Zoom meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the Tahsildhar where further steps will be looked into,” explained Shyju.

The pandemic has also forced the administration to be increasingly dependent on online meetings to undertake day to day coordination.

“People are also being encouraged to shift with relatives and acquaintances in case of flooding,” adds Shyju.

“Once an orange alert is announced in a district, in view of the special circumstances warranted by Covid-19 and to avoid over-crowding of camps, people living in areas which had got flooded in the 2018-19 floods have to be encouraged to move towards safer places either with their relatives and friends,” reads the Orange Book (translated from Malayalam), advising the administration to reduce the load on government run relief camps from the beginning.

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Jeff Joseph