The Damn Floods: Why We Are Never Prepared

Why does nearly every ‘natural’ disaster hit us on such a scale? What are we doing wrong? Who’s guilty? Kerala’s monster monsoon leaves us with a deluge of questions.

- Thufail P.T. In Kerala And Pragya Singh And Siddhartha Mishra In New Delhi

The Deluge. It’s just over a week since it hit Kerala. yes, the scale was epic enough to recall Pauranic and Biblical lore, and the effect profound enough for all of us to revisit our basic ideas about how we live. as the flood waters recede, the freed lands unveil more destruction every day. But the story has gone beyond the human toll, the material devastation, the heroic rescue work, the exhausting social media battles. It’s almost as if we have attained the wide-angle perspective of an aerial shot at one of those dams in the Idukki high ranges, bursting at the seams: Nature threatening to overwhelm puny human efforts to control and contain her. One look at it and you know. India simply has to reckon with its past follies and prepare for the future. It cannot meet the next disaster like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming train.

Cut to Scene 1: a hum of activity. It’s CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. There’s near-mayhem here, and a precarious order emerging from it. The Communist strongman’s all-powerful secretary, former CPI(M) legislator M.V. Jayarajan, is trying to manage the crisis from the top office. With a towel draped over his chair—the regulation blue-onwhite characteristic of Kerala’s officialdom—Jayarajan is monitoring television news. His telephone will not stop ringing. Entreaties are pouring in—millions are still marooned on makeshift ‘islands’, an archipelago of rooftops and ridges. “Our hill stations, our coastal belt, the intermediary areas, all are affected,” says Jayarajan, gloomily. “All 42 dams in the state have been opened as their water level was exceeding capacity. We never expected this to happen.”

That last line is the real giveaway. No one ever expects a disaster. It follows, logically, that no one