Construction & Dilapidation
Building of the new seawall with the use of tetrapods and rubles
Construction of groyns
Vegetation and other life forms taking over the dilapidated spaces
Different ecologies coexisting
Moss and grass growing over the dilapidated structure due to the moisture present
Washed out spaces being used to store tetrapods
Geobags
Vegetation and other life forms taking over the dilapidated spaces
Walking towards the south of Velankaani Matha church, we saw an old chapel made of stone on the opposite side of the church. Along the chapel there were remains of the older seawall which were broken in floods.On the outer side of the road there is a hard edge construction of the seawall made in stone and arrangement of tetrapods which makes the wall 6 meters high. We climbed the stones of the seawall as we could not see the sea at all and experienced the vastness of the sea. Along the water edge we observed crabs, moses and other aquatic vegetation growing. Cool breeze and scorching sun conditioned us to walk along the seawall and from the inner side of the road. Walking under the shade along the inner side of the road we noticed older geo-bag walls which were placed after the breaking of the stone wall. There is also a canal that leads to the backwater on the other side of the road which was dried and wet and it was sloping towards the settlement and the backwaters .Two different ecologies were observed in the dried and wet regions.
The empty space along the edge that were washed houses in floods is used for storage of stones, tetrapods and its manufacturing. Few houses on the edge are dilapidated where vegetation and other life forms are taking over the dilapidated built forms. A few parts of some houses are renovated and are used by the residents or the workers involved in the construction of the seawall. In conversation with one of the resident who spoke in malayalam, we only understood her condition after the calamity where she said, no house - no husband - no money - no job . In search of food we started moving towards the main road where we saw newly constructed houses towards the main road with private and maintained plantation. We walked a while along the main road and met the same canal and moved towards the settlement and hence observed the porosity from the sea to the main road.