Saturday’s heavy downpour brought life in the hi-tech city to a halt.
Bangalore: Saturday’s heavy downpour brought life in the hi-tech city to a halt. The total lack of preparation and coordination between the BBMP and the BWSSB led to clogged drains, overflowing manholes, fallen trees and electricity poles and inundated neighbourhoods.
Although rains in November aren’t unusual in Bangalore, civic authorities proved themselves ill-equipped even for routine, short-term relief measures. In fact, Bangalore receives most of its annual rainfall between October and December.
The BBMP has not kept its promise of filling all the potholes on all major roads soon after the monsoon. This is a pressing matter, in a city where traffic jams are a constant problem. The BWSSB has continued with its regular schedule of cleaning the sewage network and no additional efforts have been made to prepare for heavy rains likely in November.
Moreover, as part of their pipeline replacement project, the BWSSB has also dug up roads in many parts of the city. This work has not been finished and many roads are have been a mess since the rain.
It has been well-established that Bangalore’s flash floods are caused mainly due to the loss of aquatic systems drainage capacity. Encroachment of wetlands causes floodway obstruction and loss of natural flood storage in the city.
Civic agencies are yet to take concrete steps to clear encroachment of lake beds. Let alone the long term measures, the civic agencies have failed Bangaloreans in even fighting rain-related emergencies promptly.
The city is still suffering the damage that the Saturday rains caused. The delay in clearing fallen and uprooted trees is unjustifiable. This highlights the city’s need for an emergency management cell.
