A resident of Surya Nagar slums sits by her house which was destroyed by the Chennai Floods. She is part of the survivors of the floods which displaces 1.8 million people in the South India territory in the first week of December.
Today she awaits for help to come, to be relocated to a new home and a chance to start life over again. The local government has promised to give new low cost flats to all those families in this district of Surya Nagar. They are still waiting for this promises to be fulfilled.
Part of the conversation below was with my friend, Anjana from the Naam foundation, who adopted this slum village to support the women.
“What are your plans now?”
“We can’t do much but wait. We are all just waiting for a new home now and can’t rebuild our homes here as it’s too dangerous now.”
“How high was the water here?”
“As high as the trees here, look at the rubbish hanging from the trees, there is also a broken cupboard up there.”
“How about your belonging?”
“They are all gone, nothing is left, we lost everything, we had to leave our homes for safety when it happened. We had to find safety at a nearby school. We came back after the flood water from the river subsided to our broken homes and lives.”
It was not easy walking around this area, seeing the polluted river banks with waste and plastic, the smell of something dead, the feeling of something rotting and the sense of diseases surrounding me. Looking at homes and lives living here for the past 60 years, taken away with one blow from nature.
(Surya Nagar, Chennai)
