'Resilient Lanka' Project Launched to Fight Tidal Flooding in Ezhikkara Panchayat

According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, a new community-based project is being launched to combat the menace of tidal water on a small island named Lanka in Ezhikkara Panchayat, located at North Paravur in Kerala's Ernakulam district. The project has been named 'Resilient Lanka', which is considered the first community-based flood relief project to solve the problem harming the wealth and livelihood of the coastal population.

This community co-designed project will be jointly implemented by Cochin-based environment and climate-modeling technology solutions provider 'Equinox' and the newly formed foundation 'The Happiness Project'. This entire project will work under the broad supervision of Ezhikkara Panchayat. Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan is scheduled to inaugurate the project on 15 November.

This initiative is an extension of the ongoing collaboration between Equinox and Ezhikkara Panchayat for documenting, monitoring, and assessing the impact of tidal waters with the active participation of local communities over the last five years. Ezhikkara Panchayat President Seena Sajiv stated that this project could prove extremely important for the small local community of Lanka, who have been severely affected by tidal water. The panchayat is committed to the transparent implementation of this project, and if this experiment proves successful, it will also be expanded to other areas of the panchayat where tidal water ingress is high.

In-depth understanding and evidence gained through years of community engagement will be translated into appropriate local-level mitigation measures as the main objective of this project. Its core approach is to place the people facing this problem at the centre of planning and implementation. Based on the residents' experiences, local knowledge, and priorities, location-specific measures will be identified, designed, and applied.

Equinox Chief Executive Officer C.G. Madhusoodanan stated that as the first phase of this project, a Detailed Project Report (DPR) will be prepared, which will be ready by the end of the year. He also said that we have requested the State Planning Board to recognize this pilot project as a demonstration model for locally-led climate adaptation, showcasing community-based approaches to strengthen climate resilience across coastal Kerala.

This initiative will primarily focus on three aspects: preventing flooding, facilitating the easy recession of water in flood situations, and ensuring that no damage is caused to homes and properties. Work on short-term solutions is already underway ahead of the three-day tidal forecast beginning 9 November. The lessons learned from the implementation of these remedies will be incorporated into the draft of the DPR for a long-term solution.

L.G. Girish, a 48-year-old fisherman born and raised in Lanka, has expressed hope that this project will finally provide relief from the problem of tidal water affecting the residents' property and livelihood. Recalling the earlier situation, he stated that in the past, there was a specific pattern of tidal water arrival and it was mostly seasonal. But now it has become an almost daily occurrence, and on some days, it happens more than once a day. It now also takes much longer for the water to recede.