Let’s Give Sustainable Growth a Chance!

WITH INCREASE in the frequency and severity of Extreme Weather Events, due to climate change, heavy downpours that cause flooding in a short period of time have become a regular feature

- Krishan Kalra

What does that do to the citizens in big cities; life gets totally disrupted, entire city comes to a standstill, people can’t get to their place of work or schools, colleges, banks etc. Even critical patients can’t reach hospitals. Buses and cars are stranded on the road; local trains can’t operate. At times such a situation can last for as long as two days – Gurgaon’s infamous Gurujam of 29 July 2016 had held the city to ransom for 20 hours and on 29/30 August 2017 Mumbai was locked down for two days – causing huge damage to the roads, houses and other buildings, millions worth of household goods and commercial stocks; there was a huge economic loss and even lives were lost. There have been similar mishaps in Chennai, Bengaluru, Srinagar and other places.

Why does this happen?

The answers are simple. Most urban topographies have ‘natural drainage channels’ and creeks. However heavy the downpour, some water percolates down and in due course, reaches the underground aquifers. Rest flows into the drainage channels or creeks and reaches the natural water bodies. Part of it, falling on roads and concrete floors, goes into storm drains that discharge into rivers and eventually the oceans. The hectic pace of construction in big cities endeavours to cover every square foot of land and parts of the creeks and channels also get covered under valuable real estate. Construction debris are dumped in the creeks with impunity and the network is disconnected at places. So, when there is heavy rainfall, water accumulates on the roads because it has no exit, except roadside municipal drains, which are too small.