cuddalore online information

3 Years After Tsunami, Bay Area Residents Still Helping

By Sherri Ackerman

Published: December 25, 2007

TAMPA - A sign hanging outside the meeting center in the Indian village of Cuddalore offers words of inspiration to residents who had little to motivate them three years ago.

“I can, so I will,” it reads.

The day after Christmas in 2004, a monster tsunami in the Indian Ocean devastated parts of Southeast Asia. Cuddalore, a port district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, lost nearly 500 residents – many fishermen at sea.

A world away in Tampa, physicians and well-known philanthropists Kiran and Pallavi Patel ached to help. Along with friends Bella and Yogesh Patel, the couple began a fundraising campaign to rebuild Cuddalore and provide for its remaining residents.

Dubbed Project Hope, the complex includes an orphanage and school for more than 450 children. There also are homes for more than 200 widowed, poor and abandoned women who learn about computers, sewing and other skills in a vocational training center.

In less than a year, the Patel Foundation for Global Understanding helped raise $400,000, with much of it coming from prominent donors in the Tampa Bay area. But dollars also came from school children at the Academy at the Lakes in Land ‘O Lakes, which collected $2,700; and restaurant workers in Tampa who started Waiting for Relief, an effort that raised more than $20,000.

In October, a group of 16 people representing the foundation traveled to Cuddlore. One of them was former University of South Florida president Betty Castor, who now is executive director for the think-tank USF Patel Center For Global Solutions.

For many, it was their first visit to India and the first opportunity to ensure that the money was well-spent, said Sigrid Tidmore, the Patel foundation’s executive director. The Patels partnered with the India Heritage Research Foundation, which Tidmore said has a solid track record in social development.

Still, the project took longer than expected. Heavy rains in 2005 delayed completion until the end of 2006, and the various programs took shape during the past year, Tidmore said.

By the time the foundation group came, the village was once again thriving with its women on their way to self-sufficiency. Children were getting adopted. Men were returning to the sea in new boats.

“The neat thing was the pride you saw in the women,” said Dianne Blyler, a former Florida Power manager who acted as the trip’s photographer.

What she liked about the foundation’s plan was how the Patels went about filling a community’s need. They asked people what they wanted instead of telling them what they were going to get, said Blyler, who also is working with Tidmore on a new project, Healthy Together Tampa Bay, to educate women on health issues.

A film crew traveled with the group and developed three videos to be shown next month, Tidmore said. One will focus on tsunami relief efforts, which should appeal to hurricane-weary residents along the Gulf of Mexico.

“You can’t help but compare it to Katrina,” she said of the tsunami’s wrath. “When you go out on the beaches, everything is flattened a mile inland.”

But there are signs of new growth, she said. Green shoots sprout from trees, still snapped in half from the massive wave. Freshly-painted boats line the shore. Children’s laughter once again can be heard in Cuddalore.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

Three years on, tsunami memories linger - Hindustan Times
GC Shekhar, Hindustan Times
Cuddalore, December 26, 2007

Vadivelu and Kullammal cannot stop showing their new home to friends. They can’t believe that this airy two-bedroom dwelling with a verandah would be theirs for the rest of their lives.

Vadivelu, a 71-year-old farmer from Uppalandi village near Cuddalore, lost his little plot in the December 26 tsunami three years ago. The seawater made his land uncultivable.

But assistance came in the form of Help Age India for the farming couple who stayed in a shanty till then. “We never even dreamt of such a place even while we lived in our leaking shanty back in our village. With no children to take care of us, this is God’s gift,” said Vadivelu.

Vadivelu and Kullammal were two lucky ones chosen by Help Age India as part of its post-tsunami rehabilitation plan for 7,800 elders. The couple was chosen by a village elders’ committee for the Thamaraikulam Elders Village, a model residential home for elders.

Just 5 km from Cuddalore on the East Coast Road, the village will be the home to 100 senior citizens, all chosen by their respective village committees.

Built in clusters, each unit would house four elders with a common kitchen and dining hall as well as an activity-cum-training room so the elders are never short of company.

Small details about their needs have been taken care of. Like the toilet bowl with a railing on either side as well as the non-skid flooring. At their service would be a visiting doctor plus an ambulance and 10 full-time nursing assistants.

“We have even provided a walking track around the lotus pond — from which the village gets its name Thamaraikulam — and a two-acre vegetable and herbal patch where they can continue their farming on a minor scale. The whole idea is to let them age actively and with dignity,” said Rajeswhar Devarakonda, project head of Help Age India.

News channel NDTV’s viewers contributed Rs 1.25 crore for the project’s cost of Rs 2.48 crore.

It will become fully operational in two months. “At present, we have ten elders living here to check out the system and will gradually bring all 100 beneficiaries,” Rajeswar said.

One of them is Venugopal, who has no teeth, but loved the food served in the 10 days he stayed there. His right eye recovering from a cataract surgery, the 64-year-old said: “I could not enjoy the chicken though.”

Three years on, tsunami memories linger - Hindustan Times
GC Shekhar, Hindustan Times
Cuddalore, December 26, 2007

Vadivelu and Kullammal cannot stop showing their new home to friends. They can’t believe that this airy two-bedroom dwelling with a verandah would be theirs for the rest of their lives.

Vadivelu, a 71-year-old farmer from Uppalandi village near Cuddalore, lost his little plot in the December 26 tsunami three years ago. The seawater made his land uncultivable.

But assistance came in the form of Help Age India for the farming couple who stayed in a shanty till then. “We never even dreamt of such a place even while we lived in our leaking shanty back in our village. With no children to take care of us, this is God’s gift,” said Vadivelu.

Vadivelu and Kullammal were two lucky ones chosen by Help Age India as part of its post-tsunami rehabilitation plan for 7,800 elders. The couple was chosen by a village elders’ committee for the Thamaraikulam Elders Village, a model residential home for elders.

Just 5 km from Cuddalore on the East Coast Road, the village will be the home to 100 senior citizens, all chosen by their respective village committees.

Built in clusters, each unit would house four elders with a common kitchen and dining hall as well as an activity-cum-training room so the elders are never short of company.

Small details about their needs have been taken care of. Like the toilet bowl with a railing on either side as well as the non-skid flooring. At their service would be a visiting doctor plus an ambulance and 10 full-time nursing assistants.

“We have even provided a walking track around the lotus pond — from which the village gets its name Thamaraikulam — and a two-acre vegetable and herbal patch where they can continue their farming on a minor scale. The whole idea is to let them age actively and with dignity,” said Rajeswhar Devarakonda, project head of Help Age India.

News channel NDTV’s viewers contributed Rs 1.25 crore for the project’s cost of Rs 2.48 crore.

It will become fully operational in two months. “At present, we have ten elders living here to check out the system and will gradually bring all 100 beneficiaries,” Rajeswar said.

One of them is Venugopal, who has no teeth, but loved the food served in the 10 days he stayed there. His right eye recovering from a cataract surgery, the 64-year-old said: “I could not enjoy the chicken though.”

by Ramya Kannan

Recent rain compounds the issue, causing flooding in many areas

CHENNAI: In a State where the progress of post-tsunami rehabilitation has largely been consistent over the last three years, inappropriately-addressed sanitation issues have begun to raise a stink.

The inappropriateness of sanitation projects implemented in the tsunami-hit districts of the State, especially in rural, coastal Tamil Nadu, has never been as clear as it has been in the last six months, when large-scale resettlement to permanent shelters took place.

With more and more people shifting to permanent buildings constructed by various NGOs based on specifications provided by the Government, sanitation or the lack of it, is threatening to grow into a big issue. The recent rain has further compounded the issue, causing flooding in many areas.
Unusable toilets

Cause for concern: Sewage overflowing at Tsunami Nagar. (Right) An Ecosan toilet at Shanmuga Nagar, Parangaipettai in Cuddalore. —

Tamizhmani, who lives in Tsunami Nagar, Cuddalore, had stopped worrying about the unusable toilet in her home until the monsoon arrived. With flood waters inundating the vast area near the settlement used by the locals for defecation, Tamizhmani has realised that it is essential for her to repair the toilet at any cost. “I could not use it right from the beginning. It clogs up with sand. Also, during the rains, the water too is contaminated.” Cuddalore collector Rajendra Ratnoo says fisherfolk are unused to toilets and this is part of the problem.

The local Tsunami Resource Centre has been commissioned to study acceptability and usage of toilets in the permanent shelters, he adds.

In Nagapattinam too, where people in some areas continue to live in temporary shelters while others have moved to the permanent houses, basic amenities are still in question.
Complaints galore

Residents charge that access to protected drinking water and good sanitation has been ignored. As pit latrines, septic tanks and soak pits had not being constructed properly, the areas were inundated with sewage after the rains.
Contaminated water

Those in Colachel and Melamanakudi in Kanyakumari complain of contaminated drinking water.

Antony Sami of BLESS, a Cuddalore-based NGO involved in building houses, sanitation issues arise primarily because of the natural soil conditions and non-involvement of the community in building plans. In most areas, toilets have been constructed with technologies unsuited to the sandy soil and high water table of the coastal areas.

Alternative technologies, such as the Ecosan dry toilets are also being tried out, as in Shanmuga Nagar, Cuddalore. C.V. Shankar, Officer on Special Duty, Tsunami Rehabilitation programme, says cognisance has been taken of the issue.

In the coming year, attention will be paid to constructing decentralised water treatment plants in the urban areas.

In rural areas, he said, local solutions would be utilised to improve the situation.

(With inputs from K.Subramanian, Nagapattinam and P.Suresh Kumar, Kanyakumari)

Source

Tsunami hit survivors lead an uncertain life three years on - Daily India

Three years after the deadly tsunami ravaged the southeast Indian coast, claiming thousands of lives, survivors of the tragedy in Chennai are still trying to forget the scars left behind by the killer waves full story>>

Candle light marches mark third anniversary of tsunami in TN - The Hindu

…In Chennai, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore along with ten other districts bearing the brunt of the waves, families of the victims offered prayers at the graves with the traditional `Padayal’ (offering delicacies to the dead).
…
Fiftyone coastal villages in Cuddalore district, which were hit by the tsunami killing 648 people, wore a new look, with houses and amenities like roads and drinking water facilities built by various NGOs. District Collector Rajendra Ratnoo told PTI that normal life had returned to the district. A total of 1903 houses have been constructed and handed over to the victims, he said full story>>

Wave of memories hits the coast - News Today

…Poignant secnes were witnessed in the worst hit Kanniyakumari, Nagapattinam and Cuddalore districts, where people recalled with tears in their eyes, how they lost their dear ones to tsunami. In Cuddalore, where 648 had been consumed by the madness of the sea, fishermen at Sonangkuppam —— one of the worst-affected —— were all at sea with the surging waves of emotions even as they stayed off from the ocean.
…
Representatives of Chambers of Commerce and various political parties took silent processions and pledged their support to the victims. In Cuddalore, silent processions were taken out in Thazhanguda, Devanampattinam and Sonakuppam fishing hamlets full story>>

They still dream bright - The New Indian Express

Three years since the giant waves struck the coastlines in the form of tsunami, many a life has been transformed.

One among them is M Vijay (10) of Pillu Medu, from an islet near Killai, who hopes to become an officer in the defence wing. He had lost most of his family to the waves full story>>

Recovering From Tragedy - WashingtonPost
Lessons of Tsunami Reconstruction After Two Years

By Bill Clinton
Tuesday, December 26, 2006; Page A25

Today marks two years since the 2004 tsunami unleashed untold suffering and devastation upon Indian Ocean coastal communities. The tragic toll still resonates: more than 200,000 dead; 2 million people displaced; 370,000 homes destroyed or damaged; some 5,000 miles of coastline devastated; and 2,000 miles of roads ruined.

The tsunami was also unprecedented in the magnitude of the response by donors, the affected governments and their everyday citizens. The homeless received shelter, the hungry were fed, disease was prevented and substantial recovery has been achieved over the past 22 months. Nearly 150,000 homes have been rebuilt or repaired and 80,000 more are being reconstructed. More than 1,600 schools and health centers have been rebuilt or are under construction, tourists are returning to the region in large numbers, and economic growth rates have improved substantially.

At the same time, the tasks ahead are significant in scope and cost. Some 200,000 homes must still be rebuilt or repaired, and in Aceh in particular the challenges of rehabilitating infrastructure and promoting economic development remain daunting. In light of the work to be done, it is encouraging that so many donors have sustained their focus, thus far translating some $13 billion in pledges into roughly $11 billion in firm commitments to critical projects.

I have just completed my third and final trip to the affected region as the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy for tsunami recovery. In India, Thailand and Indonesia, I saw once again the resilience of the human spirit and the determination to build a better tomorrow.

At year’s end, the mandate entrusted to me by the secretary general will conclude and my responsibilities will be transferred to the United Nations, the World Bank and other established institutions. As this important work continues, I believe four key lessons learned from the tsunami reconstruction effort will contribute to further and faster progress, as well as to dealing with future natural disasters.

First, we must get better at managing risk. Climate change and patterns of human behavior ensure that more devastating natural disasters will occur in the future. The good news is that officials in the countries affected by the tsunami have made progress on a regional early-warning system, natural disaster prevention legislation, training of rapid-response personnel and public education. However, funding for prevention is much harder to come by than funding for relief after a disaster. Donors and governments of at-risk nations must invest much more money to ensure that early-warning systems reach coastal communities, that safe building codes are developed and enforced, and that evacuations are practiced.

Second, we should pursue recovery practices that promote equity and help break patterns of underdevelopment. In the Cuddalore District of India, for example, officials have worked with nongovernmental organizations to expand their post-tsunami housing program to include new homes for Dalits and members of other disadvantaged communities. Many of these people did not lose assets in the tsunami but had been living in substandard conditions. Authorities in Aceh are considering similar solutions for former squatters and renters who did not own the housing they lost in the tsunami. Such efforts should be strongly encouraged.

Third, we must recognize that peace is critical to any recovery process. In Aceh, long-conflicted groups put aside entrenched differences and created an environment conducive to reconstruction. Tragically, the tsunami has not had a similar impact on reconciliation in Sri Lanka, where the recovery will be continue to be hampered until the parties resume a serious dialogue and reestablish the cease-fire. I hope they will choose to work for peace; all of Sri Lanka, especially the tsunami victims, will continue to suffer until they do.

Finally, we must do more to harness the talents of local entrepreneurs and established businesses, domestic and foreign, in relaunching economies. Corporations in the United States and around the world contributed generously to the tsunami response, but we need to do more to turn philanthropists into investors, and providers of access to new markets.

Two years ago, millions around the world responded generously to a tragedy of historic proportions. The challenge that remains is to sustain the recovery effort, use the lessons we are learning to continually improve our response, and apply those lessons to mitigate and respond to future disasters. This will be the most fitting way to honor the memory of the hundreds of thousands who died in the tsunami and to support the millions who survived and are rebuilding their lives.

The writer, the 42nd president, is president of the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Two years past since tsunami waves struck. International aid poured in to all the tsunami affected parts of the world. It is Cuddalore which leads in tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation. New houses, schools, Self Help Groups and community-disaster alert systems are put in place. National disaster relief fund from various states are used thoughtfully in several other projects like building bridges in affected areas.

Two weeks back former US President Bill Clinton, who visited Cuddalore as a UN special envoy for tsunami relief, greatly applauded the active steps taken by our district administrator Mr. Gagadeep Singh Bedi. India’s over all response to the tsunami disaster work was good. But what has happened in Cuddalore in the past two years was excellent. It is because of our dynamic collector Mr. Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Cuddalore has seen such an immense reconstruction in the post disaster period. According to Clinton, providing housing was “the hardest thing to do”. He added while in other places only 30% of the houses were built, “In Cuddalore, even those not affected by the tsunami but identified as “vulnerable” had been given houses.” He went on to say “Florida can learn from Cuddalore” and that he want Cuddalore model of disaster management to be implemented throughout the world.

“Florida can learn from Cuddalore” simply means, administrators of Florida must learn from the administrator of Cuddalore. His work of coordinating and directing various governmental and non-grovernmental organisations in post tsunami period was phenomenal. If Cuddalore has got so much, it is because of this “good man here”.

When rest of the tsunami affected world is still in their early stages of tsunami reconstruction, Cuddalore had almost come to the final stages of the work, Tsunami Retention Wall for the vulnerable communities along the coast line . Work for the construction of tsunami retention wall has begun in full swing. Fishing villages in Cuddalore district will soon get rid of the fear of tsunami.

Tsunami has brought about a lot of change is life of fishing community in Cuddalore district. Better public addressing and warning systems are put in all coastal hamlets in Cuddalore, and a new Global Positioning System (GPS) is used to guide the fisheries off the coast explains the article Now, technology ensures smooth sailing for them .

Swiss tennis player and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Roger Federer plays cricket during his visit to the Kinnur Pudupettai village of Cuddalore, about 165 km (103 miles) from the southern Indian city of Chennai, December 23, 2006. Federer refused to put his feet up during the tennis off-season and instead utilised his time to visit tsunami survivors in Southern India on Friday.

Switzerland’s World number one tennis player and UNICEF Ambassador Roger Federer (R) holds a cricket bat while shaking hands with a child during a visit to the tsunami affected village of Kinnur Pudupettai, some 180kms south of Chennai, 23 December 2006. Over 200,000 people lost their lives in the 2004 tsunami which hit the Indian Ocean coastline, 8,000 of them in Tamil Nadu. UNICEF has been working on relief and recovery in 8 countries since the tsunami struck, building shelters but also steering programmes in health and nutrition, drinking water, education and child protection.

Source: MSNBC