Cyclone Ockhi may have merely caressed Goa and deviated away from our coasts, but it did enough damage to the shacks of Goa, to raise temperatures of hundreds of shack owners, even as the waters have receded.
Our reporters on the ground have returned to state that while the after effects of the rising waters and the high tides is far short of disastrous, these terms are completely relative to each shack owner. The impact of the disaster will be felt most severely by smaller shack owners for whom the revenue from this season’s business is critical to their lives and futures. Therefore a loss of business even for a week would literally cripple them, whereas a bigger shack would be able to absorb the shock much better and get back on its feet much faster.
While the government in right in playing by the book in ensuring that just compensation is doled out, it needs to also dole out a little dose of empathy along with its copy of the rule book. There could be many reasons for the triple effect of the high tide, the full moon and the cyclone to have caused damage to the coastline and the shacks, including the almost permanent one – the damage to the sand dunes due to rampant construction. But now that the sudden shock has happened, more stakeholders of Goa’s tourism should come forward and not leave it only to the revenue department as the nodal agency to deal with the compensation issue.
Firstly, we are getting into the second week of December. The next four weeks is going to be the absolute peak of the season when the shacks need to be fully functional. Our shacks are not isolated businesses but a window to the rest of the world. This is where all tourists come and hang out. Apart from the compensation that is being calculated, some out of the box thinking is required to mitigate their losses. While this has to be factored in by the various arms of the government, it can surely think along the lines of restructuring some of their debts, giving them longer deadlines to pay dues and perhaps even reducing some fees , to indirectly help them.
The impact of the cyclone and the destruction it has caused to shacks from the southern to the northern coasts of Goa, should spark off a discussion on the protection of shacks in the wake of a natural disaster. Every shack which receives a licence must compulsorily be insured against such natural calamities. And shacks in Goa, should not even think of opening and functioning without such covers, which are absolutely essential.
Therefore, the government has a scope of replicating the successful DDSY insurance scheme and making it suitable for shack and small time tourism stakeholders. And have a shack insurance scheme, to cover exactly such eventualities. Once this is done, shack owners can claim insurance without the government having to examine the merit of each shack’s case, which is going to be tedious and time consuming.
More importantly, principal arms of Goa’s tourism, hoteliers, taxi operators, home owners who let their premises out for tourist and others, all depend on the shacks to send their tourists in.
It is imperative, that each of them stand with the shack owners in this difficult time and help them in whichever way they can. Local panchayats and even local hotels including the big five-star ones should pitch in and help their local community shacks with material and other assistance to rebuild their businesses.
After all we are in the season of giving.
