Premonsoon Preparedness Activities

The 2020 Monsoon was a hectic task for Pathanamthitta since the Covid 19 has tightened the district to its extreme condition. The district was in a highly alert state after the first covid case was reported. With the previous experience of the 2018 worst hit flood, the DC Volunteers suggested preparing a Flood Action Plan in the midst of Covid to the district collector PB Nooh IAS. The suggestion was well received by the Collector and immediately we formed a Research and Analysis Team for Flood.

Volunteers from different fields were selected and formed a Flood Research Team to make the Flood Action Plan. Even after the massive flood of 2018, the district was having only the Flood Action Plan prepared in the year 2015. The basic necessary tool for preparing an updated action plan was the data - the complete data of topography, rivers, forest, geography and climate. Volunteers collected data from various departments such as irrigation, water authority, revenue, forest, soil survey and fire & rescue department. Many field visits were conducted to study the geography of the district. Also visited the dams, river banks, upstreams, forests and landslide affected areas for gathering ground level information. In light of the study, we came to understand that the main reason behind the 2018 Flood was the lack of coordination between departments in handling an abnormal situation. Including hospitals, rescue agencies, mitigation members and government officials, we made an updated resource list. With the datas that we got from the research, IMD weather forecasts and alerts , rain gauges, river scales we could predict the rise in water level in an approximate time. This was the main advantage of the Flood Research and Analysis Team. Finally the 2020 Flood Action Plan was submitted to the District Administration and an efficient early Flood Warning System was made.

Mock Drills

As per the Orange book prepared by the State Disaster Management Authority(SDMA), mock drills have to be done in all the taluks of the district for channelising and making all the departments equipped for working together in an unusual situation. This will help the system to respond very quickly and efficiently in a panic situation. But unfortunately due to many reasons, no mock drills were done in Pathanamthitta till 2019. DC Volunteers submitted a request to the District Administration for the conduct of proper Mock Drills.

With the great support of District Fire Officers and Tahasildars, separate meetings and homeworks has been done for all the taluks for making a safe Mock drill under the pandemic condition. Adoor, Kozhencherry, Mallappally, Ranni and Thiruvalla demonstrated a mock drill with the subject of rescue in immediate flooding and shifting people to safer places affected by flooding. The konni taluk came up with an attractive landslide theme where some people were covered by landslide compost, rescuing the people from deep steep and slippery conditions. The efficiency of communication lines, the time taken for departments for the response and the common peoples approach to these kinds of situations during the covid 19 pandemic were observed. All together the mock drill was made a complete success in the district history

Taluk Wise Training and Emergency Response Team

As per the Orange book by the State Disaster Management Authority, every panchayat must have an Emergency Response Team for the ground level quick response as well as passing information to the higher authorities in an abnormal situation for making a quick response. Even in an emergency situation, all the government missionaries cannot work to its 100% efficiency because of the lack of communication or roadblocks or not being able to reach the spot due to some reasons. To deal with this kind of emergency situations, a local rescue team can act faster till the main rescue teams arrive or they can at least arrange the path to the main rescue team to reach the spot. Knowing the importance of this, the DC volunteering came forward to take the responsibility of more efficient working Emergency Response teams in every panchayat. Taking it as a better opportunity, in addition a one day program has been conducted in all the six taluks of the district which includes a small lecture regarding the topography as well as the flood action plan & early warning system, a small presentation about District - State - National Disaster Management Authority has been conducted by the Flood & research analysis team and an on stage rescue demo class has been conducted by the Fire & Rescue officials with the support of Thasidhars. From all the 56 panchayats and 4 municipalities of Pathanamthitta a total of 5 members from respective panchayats including the president, secretary, village officers and two ert members were told to attend the class. An active participation has been seen throughout the six days of class in all the taluks. Separate 6 whatsapp groups have been created for six taluks for bilateral passing of information in alert situations. As a result of this training, all the panchayats made a separate flood action plan, panchayat level ERT groups and submitted a perfect report to the district administration. During the highest rainy day of 2020, these ERTs played a major role in sharing information which made the analysis more easier for the District Administration.