Coastal villages in Ganjam face growing threat from rising sea levels

The coastal area of Ganjam district is highly endangered as the sea tide gradually intrudes into the village, posing significant threats to people and the administration. 

The inhabitants of Rameyapatna village have no other choice but to shift out of their houses as the regular tide keeps destroying the ground with property.

Inadequate Protection Measures

The authority has already begun to build guard walls to protect but the people here consider the wall to be too low to prove effective in protecting their respective homes. It is said that more than 170 houses were present in Rameyapatna; however, the present scene is completely different. Now, only a handful of houses are left; 80% of them are again hazardous. 

Broad-based Impact to Adjacent Villages

Similar scenes are seen in other coastal villages along the 60-kilometre stretch of Ganjam's coastline. Podampeta and Kantiagada have villages reeling through similar precarious conditions, leaving their people to live in constant fear of the danger posed by rising water levels. 

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Calls for Immediate Action

Despite the construction of guard walls in Rameyapatna and further defensive measures to be constructed in other localities, community leaders and environmental experts emphasize that the above measures are inadequate to cope with the intensifying crisis. 

Therefore, they said that steps must be taken without delay to improve protection for susceptible communities. 

"There is a need for increasing the height of the guard wall erected by the government, and its length also has to be increased in both the northern and southern directions. If these measures are not taken immediately, many villages could be affected negatively, and saltwater could enter agricultural lands," said L. Bagiraju, President of the Ganjam Fishermen Union.

Future Plans and Studies

"We have initiated construction of the guard wall at Rameyapatna. In future, we plan to stretch it further 1 km ahead. We will be conducting a study on that particular stretch first, after which a DPR will be presented. If problems repeat in future also, then only we'll make a thorough study and proceed further," Ganjam Collector Dibya Jyoti Parida said.

Addressing Solutions for Climate Change

As climate change threatens to engulf Ganjam district, the people remain in search of answers on how they can be protected from nature's advancing fury.

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