A flood of emotions: Observations on Kolhapur 2019 flood impacts

Aparna Maladkar writes:

Prologue: Local perception of floods

I remember, as a child, going to ‘see the floods’ was an enthusiastically-looked-forward-to outing with my family. My city’s river Panchaganga, lakes Kalamba, one of the sources of drinking water, and Rankala, a major touristic sight, would be swollen with water after continuous hammering of unforgiving rains throughout the monsoons. Indians revere the formidable strength of the monsoons and equally relish in its pleasurable respite from the preceding hot months. This fascination literally summons the whole city to ‘see the floods’ at the confluence where the waters rise to meet the day-to-day activities of the dry land. Close to the swollen waters and in safe distance, street vendors lined up with a variety of fried snacks, knowing too well Indians’ love of eating hot, oily, fried foods (onion bhaji being one of the firm favourites) while drinking hot, sweet, masala chai (tea) in the crisp, cool, wet weather while listening to the pitter-patter of the rains. The atmosphere feels like a street party where mostly everybody enjoys the weather while astute vendors benefit from the economic opportunities brought on by the deluge. I am sure back then too there must have been many families that lost houses and belongings, businesses and crops that flooded and rotted, but the impact was either not widely reported or not as severe, and it largely seemed that life carried on as waters receded.

Preface: Journey to my home town

Reaching my home town, Kolhapur, in August 2019 proved to be challenging. I was hoping to arrive by 6 August, however over the next ten days my family daily updated me on the news of severe floods and incessant rains that made the region entirely inaccessible. News channels were constantly reporting that this was the worst flooding so far recorded in the area as river and flood levels reached never seen before new highs. My family cautioned me from travelling immediately for the fear of being stranded on road as the city and surrounding 204 villages, 324 bridges, 29 state highways, 56 roads and two national highways became submerged under water.[i] Reports estimated 18,000 vehicles were stranded for days on roads leading to and past the city as the Army, Air Force, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Coast Guard, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police and local officials carried out rescue and emergency operations.[ii] By the time I reached Kolhapur, a substantial amount of water had subsided from the main roads, but it was heart-wrenching to watch my home town drown in troubles following adverse impacts of the disaster. Over the next month, I hoped to talk to some people to understand their experiences, concerns and their needs.

Kavitatai, a resilient kumbhar: Individual challenges

A few days after my arrival, I was walking past Kumbhar Galli (literally, Potters Lane), which had been totally submerged under water. Alongside the busy road, a hard-at-work kumbhar (potter) invited me in her front room that was her home, her work place and her shop, and pointed to the ceiling, “that’s how high the level of the water reached a few days ago.” I stood silently looking at about 3m high water-mark that was clearly visible on the walls behind her. Along the entrance, small idols of Ganapti (Elephant God) were lined up ready to be fired, and Kavitatai* was busy pressing clay and mud into a mould to create new idols as she shared her experience. August is one of her busiest and most profitable periods; this time sees one of the biggest festivals, Ganesh Chaturthi, and her family’s livelihood during this period is exclusively based on crafting and selling beautiful clay idols of Ganapati. She forlornly told me that carefully crafted creations that were ready to be sold were all destroyed in the flood waters, along with most of her crafting equipment that had now drowned or floated away. She had one week only before the onset of the festival to try and make as many new idols as possible. She hoped rather than believed that the last-minute idols would, with any luck, make a decent income for the remainder of this year.

In spite of her sinking business prospects, she happily chatted with me, being thankful to the local people that were supportive in the initial phases and for the emergency relief packages distributed by the authorities and the city’s many philanthropists. She pondered that any substantial monetary support from the authorities will probably take months to reach them, and the family could not possibly survive solely on the hope of this ‘potential’ support. Kavitatai determinedly exclaimed, “we have to try and sell as much as possible, that’s all we can keep doing, and that’s what we have been doing every time after floods.” Let’s not forget voices following 2005 floods which reaffirm that the people were left to fend for themselves as ‘the government did not provide adequate support and follow-up.’[iii] In spite of having lost her livelihood and with sinking hopes for her family’s economic well-being, Kavitatai’s narrative asserted her and her family’s optimism for life, and resilience to combat adverse impacts courageously. I often wondered how her family made through the festival days, as in spite of promises following the devastation to have subdued celebrations, the rest of the city welcomed Ganesh for the next eleven days with great pomp and monetary extravaganza.

Padali’s hope for inclusivity: Leave no one behind

In the initial days, many locals along with social and professional groups were involved in relief activities, and with one such group, I visited a nearby village, Padali, about 15km from Kolhapur. Agriculture being one of the main sources of income, the drive to Padali was idyllic; fertile fields lined both sides of the road with tall kharif (monsoon) crops like sugarcane and rice, dotted with massive mature banyan trees with long hanging aerial roots that can reach the windshield as we whiz past. The scenery became picturesque, especially in the monsoon season with little ponds glistening in the peeping sunlight, wet bright green trees and delicate leaves of sugarcane and rice crops swaying in the gentle breeze.  As we neared Padali, the fields were laden with water, and the rice and sugarcane crops gleamed surreal golden yellow in colour. Sadly, with the ceaseless persistent rains, the golden crops had nothing to offer the locals as their prolonged exposure to water had rotted and destroyed the crops. With most of Padali under water during the floods, livelihoods were threatened, and many houses had collapsed, totally or partially. Emergency aid in form of medicines, food and shelter essentials had arrived in large quantities.

We were welcomed by the community members, and the team distributed relief packages. Since I was brandishing a camera, I was quickly surrounded by a group of women who recounted their experiences. A middle-aged woman, Ashatai* invited me to her small one-room home, indicated to her partially damaged house and timidly asked, “can you help me in any way?” I could see the wall on the far side of the small room had collapsed. She explained, “I am a widow with a young daughter and no male family members nearby, so it’s difficult for me to make my voice heard. Since my house has only partially collapsed, rehabilitation is not a priority for the authorities. With two women alone in this damaged house, security and privacy is a major problem for us.” The neighbouring women were supportive, and clarified that the men were at the forefront of relief distribution and they were usually not keen to listen to women’s issues. A couple of lanes down the road, number of houses had collapsed; most reporters, politicians and important figures were side-stepping areas with partial destruction and aimed straight for the collapsed houses for strategic photo opportunities. Major rehabilitation support was also concentrated towards these families as it meant better publicity for the VIPs and the media. 

One woman showed me her food (grains) and clothing relief parcels, while deliberating, “how can I cook the grains if my utensils have floated away, where do I store these clothes if all my storage has rotted.” They confirmed that nobody had as yet asked the women what they needed, though medicines, food and clothes were available aplenty. We discussed different opportunities to give a strong united voice to the women of Padali, either through existing women’s groups or by forming new groups. The women were particularly worried about what might happen if the water rises again, which was a strong possibility with no credible evidence of long-term flood-proof measures for the village.

Backdrop: Kolhapur flood facts

Kolhapur, a historic city with a population of 561,000,[iv] has seen severe flooding in 1989 and 2005. This year about 30 people were reported to have died, and an estimated 400,000 displaced in two districts. People were moved into a mere 372 temporary camps and shelters,[v] while a large number sought shelter in hotels, and with friends and family living in safe areas. The city experienced large-scale destruction of some of its main industries: agriculture, animal husbandry and diary. Electricity and water supply were regularly cut off for hours through the day during and after floods. In spite of the incessant rains, activists and environmentalists claimed the floods to be ‘a man-made disaster’. Lack of robust regulation to protect flood plains, massive construction activities in flood restricted zones, encroachment of the river banks, all further leading to deforestation and sand mining, were considered to be prime reasons. Authorities, planning departments, and the construction industry have since been playing the blame-game as these causal factors emerged.[vi] I had the opportunity to discuss provision of shelter rehabilitation support with a couple of philanthropists and they were ready with potential plans, but uninterested to talk with local people to understand their needs that could highlight the most appropriate infrastructure and support required by the community. Furthermore, climate change is severely impacting India, and along with the cumulative effects of inadequate laws, negligent planning requirements, reckless construction decisions and corporate greed, people’s mental, physical and economic well-being is severely being compromised.

Epilogue: Reflections

Emergency aid, though necessary, was at times surplus, unwanted and wasted. The day-to-day necessary items were missed out, which meant that many people found it difficult to get back to routine. Staggered relief proves a good system where preference is given to the neediest, however there was no evidence or knowledge at local level about authorities or other organisations undertaking post-disaster needs assessments to understand the urgent and long-term needs of Padali. There were also limited flood-proofing measures in place or credible measures for the future. There was an urgent need to increase awareness of the power of grassroots campaigning, especially for the benefit of minority groups. In retrospection, due to my short visit, I too was unable to substantially help the people I met, though I do know that few kind individuals are still trying to assist the villagers to the best of their ability. The people of Padali are highly vulnerable to floods and with limited resources and capacity building, villages like Padali are being left behind.

As the frequency and severity of natural disasters increases, targeted, sustainable and needful aid is essential to rebuild a strong equitable community, especially when complex gender, economic, political, cultural and social perceptions can sometimes become contributing factors in marginalising minority groups. Additionally, reluctance to change construction activities, weak infrastructure, limited forewarning, preparedness and preventative disaster risk and reduction measures, ineffective coordination of humanitarian response, lack of motivation to understand needs of a community, and limited interest in creating grassroots development further proves likely to limit constructive growth for resilient communities. Individuals and their immediate support structures emerge as the most resilient, responsible and strong elements in these situations. To realise equitable development, alongside raising awareness in individuals and local communities, the authorities, humanitarians and the building community need to learn from their past experiences, acknowledge local capabilities, take appropriate measures to prevent severity of disasters, and support appropriate long-term rehabilitation.

*Names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Permission was obtained before photographing all people, and duly advised that the photographs could be used in posts and via social media.

Unless otherwise mentioned, copyright for photographs belongs to Aparna Maladkar.

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[i] News18. (2019). 1.32 Lakh Shifted to Safer Places as Kolhapur and Sangli in Western Maharashtra Face Brunt of Flood. [online] Available at: https://www.news18.com/news/india/1-32-lakh-shifted-to-safer-places-as-kolhapur-and-sangli-in-western-maharashtra-face-brunt-of-flood-2262261.html [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].

[ii] Moneycontrol. (2019). Maharashtra floods: Water recedes in Kolhapur, NH-4 likely to open. [online] Available at: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/maharashtra-floods-water-recedes-in-kolhapur-nh-4-likely-to-open-4321931.html [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].

[iii] Jain, S. (2019). As Maharashtra floods yet again, residents of a village in Kolhapur gather what remains of their lives - Firstpost. [online] Firstpost.com. Available at: https://www.firstpost.com/long-reads/as-maharashtra-floods-yet-again-residents-of-a-village-in-kolhapur-gather-what-remains-of-their-lives-7163551.html [Accessed 19 Nov. 2019].

[iv] 2011 census

[v] Moneycontrol. (2019). Maharashtra floods: Water recedes in Kolhapur, NH-4 likely to open. [online] Available at: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/maharashtra-floods-water-recedes-in-kolhapur-nh-4-likely-to-open-4321931.html [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].

[vi] Srivastava, K. (2019). Western Maharashtra floods: A man-made disaster?. [online] Mongabay-India. Available at: https://india.mongabay.com/2019/10/western-maharashtra-floods-a-man-made-disaster/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2019].

Cendep Wins Research Award for Innovative Research Solutions to Help the World's Most Vulnerable People

Charles Parrack writes:

Earthquakes, storms, floods, and conflict cause untold damage to housing, infrastructure, services, agriculture and livelihoods. Householders themselves are invariably the first to respond, and the majority - 80 to 90% - receive little or no assistance from the international community and they become the main drivers of their own recovery process. This process has been termed 'self-recovery'.

This project, led by the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice at Oxford Brookes and CARE International UK and in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, Habitat for Humanity, CRAterre and the British Geological Survey, builds on previous research focused on understanding how housing self-recovery works to develop guidance and tools, which will help operational agencies support the process.

The Funder, UK Research and Innovation, made the following announcement:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has awarded 18 international partnerships, £14.8M – shared between UK HEIs and global research partners. They are specifically aimed to deliver scalable solutions to issues faced by low and middle-income countries.
  
The projects have been funded as part of UKRI’s GCRF Innovation and Commercialisation Programme, developed to fast track promising research findings into real-world solutions.
UKRI Director of International Development, Professor Helen Fletcher, said:

“This is a really exciting opportunity to fund 18 projects through the Global Research Translation awards. Each and every one will make a massive difference to peoples’ lives in communities spread across the world to ensure some of the most challenged communities have a brighter future.

“Over the next year and a half, UK researchers will work with their international counterparts, policy makers, businesses and local organisations to turn promising research into solutions that can be taken forward through various pathways such as spin-out companies and social enterprises to make a positive difference to people who live with the reality of challenges such as climate change, poor sanitation and disease every day.”

https://www.ukri.org/news/innovative-research-solutions-identified-to-help-the-worlds-most-vulnerable-people/

For more information contact Charles Parrack cparrack@brookes.ac.uk

What do students research at CENDEP? (Part II)

Part II: How DEP students select research topics for their MA DEP dissertations.

Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) has made available online all MA Development and Emergency Practice (MA DEP) dissertations since 2012-13 that have successfully been awarded a Distinction or Merit.[1] CENDEP’s strong background in particular research themes has been influential in developing a strong resonance with students in determining their choice of dissertation topic, though students are always encouraged to consider all possible areas and themes for research. The theory of how a research topic is selected appears to be true of themes researched at CENDEP and this influence is visible in dissertations undertaken by MA DEP students.

Key Geographical Research Areas

Reviewing a list of available dissertations, it is interesting to note that the most researched geographical areas at CENDEP post 2012-13 are in Asia, Europe, followed closely by Africa. Figure 1 shows all the key geographical areas considered for research. Of all the countries researched in Europe, 68 per cent are based in the U.K. As the political and humanitarian discourse around migration and Brexit intensified in the U.K. in the last 3 years, the number of U.K. based dissertations increased. Post 2015, 37 per cent of all dissertations based in Europe were covered under migration themes. IOM stipulated that by 2017, 18.28 per cent of the world population were international migrants[2] and about 1.8 million had arrived in Europe since 2014.[3]

Over 60 per cent of all dissertations in Africa were based either in Kenya or Sudan/South Sudan regions. This concentration in two regions could possibly be influenced by accessibility and reach, proximity of the two regions, protracted social conflict situations, and students’ own interests. Two most researched geographical areas in the Middle East were Palestine, an area of protracted social conflict that is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues and, more recently, Syria. In Americas, 57 per cent of all dissertations were based in Haiti as the recovery and rebuilding efforts strengthened post 2010 Haiti earthquake. Research regions in Asia remained wide spread as the most urgent emergencies, conflicts and disasters took priority.

Key Research Themes 

Figure 2 highlights sixteen key and diverse research themes studied at CENDEP by MA DEP students post 2012-13. The most researched theme is ‘conflict’; the worsening impacts of conflict around the world make students keen to study possible solutions and interventions that could reduce the sufferings of the people. Global Conflict Tracker lists 24 ongoing conflicts and eight different types of conflicts in the world today. Of these seven are worsening, while seventeen are unchanging, and none seem to be improving.[4]

At the end of 2017, over 275 natural disasters have been reported and some 197 million people were thought to be internally displaced throughout the world due to natural disasters.[5] It is not surprising therefore that ‘resilience’ is a key distinct theme that has been explored as part of conflict, disaster and community development themes. 40 per cent of all conflict themes explore resilience of communities affected by the conflict. ‘Community development’ and its ‘support systems’ like local community-based organisations and NGOs are the second most researched themes which explore local impacts and interventions. This is closely followed by ‘general humanitarian issues’, and ‘migration and displacement’. Over the years, ‘gender’ has proven to be a strong theme studied by the students.

Many students at CENDEP are humanitarian practitioners and hence show a keen interest in studying the impacts and effectiveness of the available ‘humanitarian tools’ that they often use in their work life. As CENDEP is part of Oxford Brookes’ School of Architecture, fair number of students from architecture background study the impacts of emergencies and conflict issues on the built environment or ‘architecture’. Furthermore, CENDEP’s unique shelter programme leads to studying the impacts of ‘shelter’ on displaced populations typically post natural disasters. All of the above themes also resonate strongly with CENDEP’s particular strong experience in these research themes.

Figure 3 illustrates that ‘disasters’ themes have most been studied in Asia as this region is most prone to natural disasters, followed by Americas. It is well-researched that Asia Pacific region is most prone to natural disasters including storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires and landslides.[6] ‘Conflict’ theme is explored in both Asia and Africa. Tractability especially, reach, and safety remain important factors in determining geographical regions to research in terms of conflicts. Impacts of disasters and conflicts on ‘communities’ and its subsequent ‘development’ is largely researched in Asia, followed closely by Africa.

Figure 4 illustrates timelines of how research themes have developed and are influenced over a period of time following global changes to humanitarian discourse, and the urgent global humanitarian crises. Research themes sometimes re-emerge as political and humanitarian discourse develops over time. For example, as safeguarding and child protection policies became urgent in recent times and impacts of emergencies on children needed better understanding, dissertation themes studying ‘child welfare’ in disasters and conflicts has been growing. As the call for ‘Leaving no one behind’ became strong along with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)[7], themes around ‘disability’ and ‘elderly’ welfare in emergencies started resurfacing or newly developing. Similarly, SDG3 Good Health and Well-being, saw a rise in exploring physical and mental ‘health’ issues in development and emergencies sectors. Students studying health impacts were possibly also driven by the Ebola crisis in 2014.

CENDEP has seen a diverse range of research themes and geographical areas being studied by its MA DEP students greatly influenced by the impacts of global humanitarian needs, humanitarian and political discourse, CENDEP’s background, and students’ own experiences and interests. On-going protracted humanitarian crises have crucially not been forgotten, and urgent and new humanitarian issues are extensively researched by students as they hope to develop an understanding of the impacts and possible interventions through their studies. As the nature of humanitarian needs evolves, students are keen to research these new themes to better appreciate its impacts on global, regional and local levels.

Available data illustrates that there are multiple reasons for MA DEP students to choose a particular theme and geographical region, and it is largely influenced by the ongoing and new humanitarian issues that demand urgent attention. Furthermore, the new design studio as part of its unique shelter programme will allow students, especially with a background in architecture and urban planning, to introduce physical design interventions like shelters. It would be interesting to see in a few years’ time how this will influence geographical regions and research themes.

Many students arrive at CENDEP knowing in advance what they will research, however for those that are looking for possible subjects, studying the published dissertations may prove to be a good starting point, and possibly help in identifying gaps that could be explored as new research themes.

Aparna Maladkar

Post Graduate Research Assistant

CENDEP

Notes:

This is Part II of a two-part article ‘What do students research at CENDEP?’ Part II is based on analyses of MA DEP dissertations from the year 2012-13 onwards that have been awarded Distinction and Merit. Every year since 2012-13, over 89 per cent of dissertations achieving Distinction and Merit, except in the year 2016-2017, when this was 71 per cent. It is possible that analysis of all dissertations from 2012-13 may likely give different results and identify additional research themes and areas.

Part I of a two-part article is based on the author’s personal journey of studying at CENDEP and can be found here.

Links

CENDEP dissertations are available here:

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/dissertations/

Short interviews with CENDEP students can be found here:

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/support-us/brookes-alumni-fund/cendep/

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[1] Oxford Brookes University. (2019). CENDEP student dissertations - Oxford Brookes University. [online] Brookes.ac.uk. Available at: https://www.brookes.ac.uk/architecture/research/cendep/dissertations/ [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].

[2] International Organization for Migration. (2019). World Migration. [online] Available at: https://www.iom.int/world-migration [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[3] Henley, J. (2018). What is the current state of the migration crisis in Europe?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/what-current-scale-migration-crisis-europe-future-outlook [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[4] Global Conflict Tracker. (2019). Global Conflict Tracker l Council on Foreign Relations. [online] Available at: https://www.cfr.org/interactive/global-conflict-tracker/?category=usConflictStatus&vm=list [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[5] Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. (2019). Natural Disasters. [online] Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/natural-disasters [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

[6] O'Brien, A. (2018). Natural disasters most likely to hit Asia-Pacific: report. [online] SBS News. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/natural-disasters-most-likely-to-hit-asia-pacific-report [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019].

[7] Sustainabledevelopment.un.org. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals.: Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. [online] Available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 [Accessed 21 Apr. 2019]