ACT Alliance

Five years on from the southeast Asia tsunami, there is little evidence of the destruction it brought around Nagapattinam in the south of India. For the fishing communities, however, the social, economic and environmental consequences continue to threaten their survival even more than the original natural disaster. Christian World Service has been funding partner Neythal as it helps communities fight for their rights to land and livelihood.

In the aftermath of the tsunami, there were many efforts to relocate the traditional fishing communities into new housing further inland. It was even used as an excuse for forced evictions. This was disastrous to the communities’ way of life.  It took the people much greater time, effort and expense to carry out their fishing activities. Many returned to temporary housing or lived between the two because of the practicalities – people needing to be up early, have nets and gear on site, monitor the weather and access fish markets.

The policy also cleared the way for the commercial development the people had been fighting for years, taking land from the communities for hotels and fish farms, depleting local fisheries and degrading the environment their livelihoods depended on.

Neythal has been organising village groups to fight these developments. Thanks to their training, advice and support, “people can learn to struggle for their rights”, explains one fisherman. “While the Government wanted to evacuate us, we got the confidence to raise our views, to protest and now the housing will be built here - 1452 houses, not relocated away from the coast.”

Neythal’s strength is the combination of strategies employed, from empowering and mobilising local people, to documenting ecological and economic degradation, engaging media attention, taking legal action and campaigning for change. The heart of their work is building on the concerns and knowledge of local people – the people whose very survival depends on the sustainability of their environment.  Their local involvement enabled them to not only help fishing communities survive in the days after the tsunami, but restore their way of life post-disaster.

“Fishing community people are very self-reliant and independent, we do not want to relocate, we do not want alternative employment, we do not want to leave fishing and take orders from others,” says a fisherman working with Neythal. They want to protect the environment to secure livelihoods in the present and for future generations rather than pursue short-term gains.  The Neythal programme helps him and others fulfil this simple dream of ongoing independence.