Visakhapatnam: Concreting the city roads completely as part of the beautification drive leaving no space for rainwater percolation has been drawing flak from experts and environmentalist.
They say with the city turning into a concrete jungle, planning should be such as not to block rainwater recharge. Both sides of the city roads are concretised. The footpath and other structures leave no open space.
A retired government civil engineer A. Prakasrao, said, “Rainwater is not seeping into the road. To increase groundwater recharge by percolation and decrease of flooding of storm water drains, an infiltration trench could be built by the side of the drains.”
This two feet wide and two feet deep trench should be filled with pebbles or aggregates with a top layer of coarse sand, he said. With absence of proper slope and parallel storm water provision, roads get damaged.
Experts also suggest the need to construct pervious concrete roads with different materials that help to absorb water. The rain water absorbing road will also prevent water-logging occurring due to fault in road designs.
