At other times, the Mookkenpetty causeway stretches ahead like normal roadways set well above a water body that courses down the hills. The tarmac, however, disappears rapidly under a solid sheet of water whenever it rains heavily.
In the eastern high-ranges of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, few events in monsoon are as certain as the submerging of low-level causeways across the major rivers here—Manimala, Pampa, and Azhutha. Since 2018, this phenomenon has left several settlements on the fringes of the Sabarimala forests isolated on several occasions for days on end.
The streaming floodwaters submerged four causeways in the region—Mookkenpetty, Pazhayidom, Arayanjilimon, and Kurumbanmoozhy—temporarily for a couple of days last week too. While no major untoward incidents were reported, the increasing frequency of flash floods have alarmed those who respond to the rescue calls.
“When the causeways at Angelvalley and Mookkenpetty get submerged at the same time, hundreds of families in the forest fringes remain cut off from the main land. The response to any emergency in several wards of the Panchayat gets delayed if these causeways are not open as witnessed during the mega floods of 2018 and the flash floods in the following years,’’ explained Mariyamma Sunny, president of the Erumely panchayat.
The recurring floods in the region is primarily attributed to the silt brought about by the 2018 floods, which effectively lowered the height of these causeways.
Both the causeways, according to Ms. Sunny, were constructed in the early 1990s under the leadership of Fr. Mathew Vadakkemury, popularly called ‘Malanad Achan’. The proposals to replace these causeways with high-level bridges, meanwhile, appear to have hit some blockade after the initial enthusiasm.
Sources with the Public Works Department attributed the delay in kickstarting works primarily to the non-allocation of funds. “The inspection of sites was conducted at least a year ago and directions were issued to prepare the designs. The priority, however, is accorded to projects that receive budgetary allocations,” they said.
Meanwhile, the authorities have kickstarted works to construct iron bridges across the Pampa to the forest hamlets of Kurumbanmoozhy and Arayanjilimon. The two settlements together accommodate over a thousand families and about half of them belong to the Scheduled Tribe category.
According to Divya S. Iyer, District Collector, Pathanamthitta, the proposed bridge at Kurumbanmoozhy will cost ₹4 crore while that of the structure at Arayanjilimon will be ₹2.75 crore. The bridge at Kurumbanmoozhy would be opened within a year, she said.
