Houses built on stilts, pilings or piers near rivers, lakes, and the sea are common in many developed countries.
And now, Kerala too has set a model in this regard by building 32 houses on concrete pillars in the deluge-ravaged low-lying Upper Kuttanad village of Kadapra in Thiruvalla taluk.
Concrete stilts
Thanks to the Federation of Malayali Associations of Americas (FOMAA) that have constructed these houses on concrete stilts in association with the State government and ‘Thanal’, a voluntary organisation as part of the State government’s Rebuild Kerala programme.
According to Philip Chamathil, FOMAA president, the federation have selected all the 32 beneficiary families who were rendered homeless in the devastating deluge of August last on the basis of their applications forwarded by the respective village officer and after multi-level enquiries and interviews.
Each house — with two bed rooms, a kitchen, a hall, sit-out and toilet — have been constructed on the land allotted by the Travancore Sugars and Chemicals Limited at Pulikeezhu at a cost of ₹7 lakh. The government has provided ₹4 lakh from the Life project, FOMAA spent ₹2 lakh, besides ₹1 lakh provided by ‘Thanal’.
The new houses were constructed on eight-metre tall pillars so that ordinary floods would not affect it, Mr Chamathil said.
Floodwaters did not reach beyond the second step of the ladder leading to these dwellings.
The prolonged flooding of the area in the recent floods did not affect the occupants.
August 2018 floods
The deluge of August 2018 was so devastating that it had left as many as 450 persons dead and rendered hundreds of people homeless. As per a government data, 2,51,000 houses were damaged, 14,880 of them irreparably collapsed.
Over seven lakh people sought refuge in relief camps and the Government of India had declared the situation as a Level-III calamity or ‘calamity of severe nature’.
Mr Chamathil said FOMAA was also planning to set up similar houses in various other severely flood-prone low-lying areas in the State.
