Women's groups are spearheading ambitious efforts to reduce disaster risk in flood-prone villages in southern India's Tamil Nadu state
VILLUPURAM, India (AlertNet) - In a district called Villupuram in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, a string of 10 villages lie along the course of two rivers.
The major inter-state Thenpennai River and its small tributary, the Malattaru, remain dry for most of the year. But when it rains heavily, as often happens during the second part of the monsoon in November and December, the rivers turn into demons, devouring rice fields and neighbourhoods.
Ahead of the next round of heavy rains, village women are taking the lead in preparing communities for the hazards that lie ahead.
They learn and teach swimming and rescue, store life jackets and makeshift rafts, and flood-proof the local geography – both physical and human. The initiative is an offshoot of a micro-credit programme that a local NGO, Kalvi Kendra, has promoted through women’s self help groups.
Across India, 10 such community-based disaster risk reduction initiatives are supported by the Dutch development agency CORDAID.
Women walk along the dry riverbed of the Thenpennai River at Kallipattu village, where it meets the fork of its tributary, the Malattaru. Both rivers remain dry until monsoon rains send them flowing over their banks.
At Kongampattu village, the last flood has left deep cracks in the wall of a village house. Mud houses with palm-leaf-thatch roofs are cool in harsh summers but they leak in the rains when not properly maintained.
A set of loud speakers, erected by a local women’s disaster risk reduction team, stand over Kongampattu village. The speakers have replaced the tradition of shouting and beating gongs and drums when the nearby river begins to run after heavy rains.
A disaster risk reduction centre at V Salai town offers regular training in swimming and rescue, focused on women and children living in flood-prone villages.
Subhashini Shanmugham, 19, a swimming teacher from flood-prone Veeranam village, teaches a woman how to rescue someone from the water at the Kalvi Kendra Disaster Risk Reduction Training Centre.
At Veeranam, a village inhabited mostly by Dalit people who fall below the lowest rung of India's caste hierarchy, a local rescue team tests a life-saving raft made of bamboo poles and metal drums.
Local self help group members in Rangareddy Palayam village draw a local map on the main street, marking disaster-prone spots as part of a risk assessment exercise.
At Sornavur Melpathy village, women's groups helped the local self governance body – the panchayat - build and maintain a rescue centre, one of five in 10 project villages.
As monsoon rains near, Razu Gownder, 75, and others in Vadavambalam village take part in government work to broaden barriers that line the Malattaru River. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme aims to give 100 days of manual labour a year for poor people.
Kongampattu village panchayat president Lakshmi Purushottaman (right) inspects a bridge being built over the Malattaru River. Women's groups lobbied for its construction.
A retention wall on the bank of the Thenpennai River at Vadavambalam village protects a sacred place under a banyan tree from floods.
At Sorappur village, disaster risk reduction measures include placing hand pumps on raised platforms to avoid damage and contamination of drinking water during floods.
At Sornavur Melpathy village, the local self governance body, the panchayat, has built a reservoir to harvest rain and control floods. Many such 'tanks' are managed by local communities or temples in south India.
A dam over the Thenpennai River is part of the government's flood control measures which aim to deal with increasingly heavy rain that sometimes hits 100 milimeters a day.
Vairamani Ranganathan, 39, walks with the help of a long stick. She rears goats - a form of insurance against the loss of rice fields to flooding - with the help of the women's self help group in Vadavambalam village.
In a house with tell-tale marks of damage left by the last major flood in Vadavambalam village, Arulmozhi Venkatesan, 46, a widow (sitting), sells milk for a dairy run by the local women's group, part of an effort to broaden livelihoods and reduce disaster risk.
A life insurance scheme facilitated by local women's groups helped Jayaselvi Vaikundam, 55, after her husband's death. She belongs to the marginalised Dalit community, whose leaders appear in the background photos.
At Chinnamadam village, Damodaran, 55, found his paddy fields often waterlogged, making cultivation unviable. He now plants casuarina trees, which are in demand for softwood, and cassava and sugarcane.
Flood-resistant and easy-to-manage rice grows at Kallipattu village. Such strains, promoted by women's self help groups, are being tested in south India as part of climate adaptation measures.
Max Martin, based in Brighton, UK, researches on climate, environment and migration and works with humanitarian groups.
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