Cyclone Ditwah: Scheduled Caste hamlet marooned for three days without power in Vedaranyam

A woman and child wait for help on a flooded street in Gandhi Nagar, Vedaranyam after heavy rain under the influence of Cyclone .
| Photo Credit:
R. VENGADESH

A Scheduled Caste hamlet of about 120 families in Vedaranyam has been marooned in knee-deep stagnant water for three days, with power supply cut and a government school and hostel under water, following heavy rain triggered by Cyclone Ditwah.

The settlement in Ward 9, Gandhi Puram, with around 150 houses, has been surrounded by water since mid-week. Residents say overflowing drains, a blocked surplus channel, and poor desiltation have turned the settlement into a “permanent sump”.

On Sunday, A. Punitha stood at the entrance of her house with her seven-year-old son, water pooled inside the courtyard and on the street. “We cannot send our children to school. Women cannot step out. For two days, there has been no power. We are completely cut off,” she said.

N. Sekhar, P. Raji and M. Mathiyazhagan said the hamlet has become unlivable every monsoon. “The government has built a drain, but the water is standing almost twice above its level. What is the use if there is no proper outfall?,” one of them asked.

Long-time resident C. Kasinathan, 73, called the problem structural. “These houses were allotted to us years ago precisely because it is a low-lying area and we are from the Scheduled Caste community,” he alleged. “Every year, water doesn’t drain for a week. Our children fall sick with cold and fever. No one has come to help us so far,” she said.

Residents said the southern surplus channel, which should carry water out, had effectively been closed and the new drainage canal inside the village “only collects water, not carries it away”. A ₹10-lakh internal road was laid recently, but they pointed out that the link road should have been raised to allow free flow of water. The government high school under the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department and its hostel in the locality are also surrounded by water “every rainy season”, they said.

Similar stagnation has been reported in Vettavaran Kadu and Mandi Thoppu, which fall under Ward 9 of Vedaranyam Municipality.

Officials of Vedaranyam Municipality said preliminary surveys had been completed and that drainage and dewatering operations would begin once the rain stops.

Elsewhere in Vedaranyam taluk, farmers in Kariyappatinam Thalainyar, Thanikottagam and Aayakkaranpulam reported water stagnation in fields, with water hyacinth drifting into flooded farm plots.

In Nagapattinam, rainwater entered houses in Ambedkar Nagar, Nagore. At the Nagore dargah, there was water stagnation in parts of the precincts, but the dargah authorities said the Kanduri festival would go ahead as scheduled in the early hours of Monday. They said arrangements were being made to provide food and drinking water for devotees.