Livelihood Restoration And Resilience Building Of Vulnerable Communities In Post-Flood Kerala

The 2018 floods in Kerala led to devastation of massive proportions, affecting livelihoods and causing destruction to life and property. To aid in the post-flood efforts, the Centre for Climate and Sustainability (CCS), WISE, undertook this project with the key objective of restoring the livelihoods of the vulnerable and marginalised sections of the community living around the Varalchal wetland in the village of Koipuram in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, who were severely affected by the 2018–19 floods, enabling the wetland and its people to become more resilient to such disasters in the future. Varalchal is the key source of productive activities and drinking water for the marginalised and low-income households of about 2000-odd residents living in the surrounding village of Koipuram. The said endeavour commenced in 2019 and is duly supported by Ford Foundation.

In the year under review, a weather and water monitoring team comprising of young volunteers was formed and specific training was imparted to them to monitor upstream and downstream regions of the Pamba river basin.

Interactions with the already established Meenachil River and Rain Monitoring team at the block level aided in understanding the benefits of early monitoring systems. The volunteer team is now regularly monitoring the rain and water levels in the wetland. The aim is to build resilience and preparedness of the local community to the vagaries of climate, even post the culmination of the project.

Several livelihoods were restored/introduced during this period to provide adequate sources of income to the vulnerable and marginalised community members. These included, homestead vegetable cultivation, poultry farming, bamboo-based product manufacturing, food processing, and soap making.

Restoration of poultry farming hugely helped enhance household incomes, with local women selling eggs in the market and earning a decent daily income.

Training and outreach programmes were organised to strengthen skills and knowledge of the local community in the livelihood activities restored/initiated.

Outreach included some key community activities like childrens’ camps for instilling love for nature among children, and field trips for live demonstration of flood control measures. Paintings on environment and water conservation
were displayed at prominent public locations for generating awareness on these critical topics.

To wrap up the project, a concluding workshop and exhibition was organised in the last week of June 2022, which included sharing of experiences of the project team and villagers on how the project activities aided in livelihood restoration and resilience building. Around 200 participants attended the workshop.

Products that were prepared by the beneficiaries as part of the livelihood training programmes (bamboo pen stands and trays, jack fruit jams, juices and snacks, organic soaps, etc) were proudly exhibited by the local women.

Given the extenuating circumstances created by the global pandemic, the core objective of the project, ‘to build resilience and restore livelihoods of the marginalised and vulnerable communities in the Varalchal region’ was Waccomplished to the maximum extent possible.

The research and activities carried out are being developed into two major reports: one on climate resilient water management and the other on gender and climate. These will be developed and presented to key stakeholders from the sector in outreach and capacity building programmes to be held in the next financial year.

The clean and calm waters of the Varalchal, post-cleaning.