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The exercise seemed pointless. A middle-aged woman was pouring out buckets of sea water flooding her modest house in Kochi to the yard. But the water had risen equally high both indoors and outdoors. Yet, in the wee hours of the night, that’s all she could do to feel some semblance of control.
Tidal flooding has made life an everyday nightmare for her and many others in Puthenvelikkara, a village in Kochi where the Periyar and Chalakudy rivers merge. Saline water from the Arabian sea flows inland through these rivers and coastal backwaters.
Arathi MR, a journalist who reports on climate change and minority rights, began her documentary on tidal flooding with the visuals of the woman wading through the water in her house and pouring out buckets in vain. “She had called me at 11 in the night and asked if we could come and help. My crew and I were all scattered in different parts of the city but we took our equipment and reached her house and shot their plight,” Arathi says.
The film, titled Uppuveedukal (Houses of Salt), documents the tidal flooding and the resulting migration of people in the coastal villages of Kerala. It was screened at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala on September 29.
Arathi has been researching tidal flooding since 2019 and is a familiar face to the scattered families bearing the brunt of climate change and wishing to move away at the earliest.
“At first, I had a different theme in mind, about how this fight against tidal flooding was taken up by five women 20 years ago, when the damages were not so bad yet. But when I began to film, the recurring thought that came from all of them was the wish to move away from it all,” Arathi says.
In the documentary, one of the women who have been fighting the cause, Vilasini, shows request after request she has submitted to authorities, waiting outside offices for long hours for a response. There were times when officials came to their neighbourhood and assessed the situation, but nothing came out of it.
One of the men who speaks in the documentary says how, because they have land, they cannot apply for the government’s housing scheme for the poor. But had they had better means, they would have packed their bags and left the land for another long back.
Arathi explains how she chose the location of her documentary: “I chose Puthenvelikkara, in place of other coastal regions like Chellanam or Vypin, because it is located 10 km away from the sea, and yet they are affected so badly.”
The women show the walls that cave in and the ceiling destroyed by sea water erosion. They get varicose veins from wading in dirty water to enter and exit the houses.
Panchayat officials say that their houses too are affected by the saline water.
Another woman managed to move a little further away from the sea with her family, only to find to her horror that tidal flooding had begun affecting that part of the village too. Their meagre belongings, kept in boxes under the bed, were ruined during a flood. On another occasion, the last remains of her mother who was cremated outside the house had to be protected from floating away so they could get some of the ashes for rituals. She talks about going to sleep every night fearing what might greet them in the morning.
Most of the families are in debt from trying to move to another village, away from the flooding.
Jobish George, one of the men who is featured towards the end of the documentary on the day his family move away, died by suicide a few months later in May 2023. “It was the most disturbing episode. We saw how disturbed he was when we shot the film and he didn’t talk to us,” Arathi says, adding, “For some reason, most men did not seem to want to talk, it was the women who narrated their tragedies.”
She is hoping there might be a better response from the authorities now that tidal flooding was made a state specific disaster in February this year. She remembers approaching officials for it even two months before that and not getting a positive response.
But that’s not enough, she says, drawing attention to the fact that climate change studies have predicted that many coastal regions in Kerala might be submerged by 2050. Districts including Ernakulam, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Alappuzha are at the risk of falling below the sea level.
If you are aware of anyone facing mental health issues or feeling suicidal, please provide help. Here are some helpline numbers of suicide-prevention organisations that can offer emotional support to individuals and families.
Kerala
Maithri: 0484 2540530
Chaithram: 0484 2361161
Both are 24-hour helpline numbers.
Tamil Nadu
State health department's suicide helpline: 104
Sneha Suicide Prevention Centre - 044-24640050 (listed as the sole suicide prevention helpline in Tamil Nadu)
Andhra Pradesh
Life Suicide Prevention: 78930 78930
Roshni: 9166202000, 9127848584
Karnataka
Sahai (24-hour): 080 65000111, 080 65000222
Telangana
State government's suicide prevention (tollfree): 104
Roshni: 040 66202000, 6620200
SEVA: 09441778290, 040 27504682 (between 9 am and 7 pm
Aasara offers support to individuals and families during an emotional crisis, for those dealing with mental health issues and suicidal ideation, and to those undergoing trauma after the suicide of a loved one.
24x7 Helpline: 9820466726
Click here for working helplines across India.ine