It has been a tough few months for septuagenarian Indira Sahadevan of Aruvathilchira colony sandwiched between the green expanse of Mecherivakka paddy polder and Pampa river at Mankombu (Pulinkunnu grama panchayat) in Kuttanad.
She was forced to shuttle the last four months of 2021 between her small home and a relief camp after the colony got inundated first by floodwaters and then by the intrusion of seawater through the Thanneermukkom barrage. Though the flood threat eased at the turn of the year, the elderly woman along with 38 families living in close quarters in the colony are now up against another recurrent issue- an acute shortage of safe drinking water.
"Floods or potable water crisis, water remains the biggest problem in our lives year-round," laments Ms. Sahadevan. "I won't say water scarcity is more severe now than in the monsoon period. Be it rainy season or summer, we lack enough clean water to quench our thirst," she says.
