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Volunteers are crafting a robust disaster management framework in Kerala that emphasizes local preparedness, early warning systems, and the active participation of its people.
Every morning, volunteers with the Meenachil River Protection Council collect information about rainfall, weather forecasts, and water levels in the areas surrounding the Meenachil River, a flood-prone waterway in Kerala, India.
They then share the data with the WhatsApp groups run by village councils, update information on the group’s website, and broadcast the forecasts on Facebook and public WhatsApp groups.
In Kerala, where climate-change-fueled monsoons have caused flooding and landslides that have increasingly threatened lives and livelihoods, these locally led efforts have emerged as a powerful force against natural disasters, ensuring timely evacuations and preventing loss of life.
Kerala’s recent focus on community-level disaster management stems from hard-earned lessons. In the aftermath of the 2018 floods, which overwhelmed existing systems, people realized that centralized efforts alone were insufficient. Grassroots organizations, neighborhood groups, and local governments got together to bridge gaps in preparedness and response. “Meenachil River Rain Monitoring Network began as a need-based initiative,” says Ebby Emmanuel, head of the Meenachil organization. Localized extreme rainfall events have triggered flash floods and landslides, underscoring the need for this dependable hyperlocal weather data. In August, the World Weather Attribution service reported that single-day heavy rainfall events in the northern parts of the state of Kerala intensified by 17% over the past 45 years due to global warming.
According to the organization’s researchers, the Wayanad district, which witnessed Kerala’s deadliest landslides in July, received 140 millimeters of rainfall in a single day, equivalent to a quarter of Paris’s annual rainfall. In such a scenario, Ebby explains, community-level efforts can help to avert a major disaster. “There were no official warnings and the river situation was almost normal, but our rain data and real-time reporting helped us to give an early warning to people,” he says. “We were able to evacuate 100-plus families in the western region of the river, with the support of the police, fire, and rescue departments.” And, as the climate continues to rapidly change, only this kind of people-centered, real-time, localized rain and river monitoring can help communities prepare and quickly respond to the threat of natural disasters.
There were no official warnings and the river situation was almost normal, but our rain data and real-time reporting helped us to give an early warning to people.
– Ebby Emmanuel, head of the Meenachil River Protection Council
However, some challenges need to be tackled to ensure that such community-level initiatives become much stronger. For one thing, the groups need more instruments to measure rainfall, something they’re hoping the government will finance. “Easy availability of funds,” Ebby says, “means installing more rain gauge equipment that will boost our efforts in fighting disasters and reducing human calamities caused by them.”
Nonetheless, as Kerala continues to navigate the challenges of climate change, its model of community-driven resilience serves as an inspiring example of how to turn vulnerability into strength.
