Chennai: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is preparing a flood master plan on the back of lessons learnt from December 2015 floods as part of its mitigation plans for the future.
On Monday, top ranking officials of the GCC, Chennai metro water, subject experts from the Netherlands, private firms and also representatives of IIT-M, Anna University and the World Bank, got together at a summit at Amma Maaligai at Ripon Building premises.
The summit, organised under the 100 Resilient Cities moniker, was an initiative of the Rocke-feller Foundation.
Speaking to DC, senior officials of the corporation said the summit helped float ideas from different partners with it coming in handy for the local body’s master plan.
“For instance, the canals and rivers are under the purview of the public works department. The corporation cannot on its own set about formulating an action plan and so it needs the support and encouragement of every department concerned. We will also need views from world over to make a customised action plan that suits the city,” an official said.
“Our zonal officers have already mapped out localities, which suffered extensive damage, drawing up on their own personal experience during the floods. The plan will be forwarded to the government for approval soon,” the official added.
The summit consisted of two sessions, with the forenoon session seeing former commissioner Vikram Kapur describe experience of the corporation and efforts undertaken to prevent epidemic outbreak in the aftermath of the flood.
The afternoon session involved foreign experts submit presentations on disaster mitigation plans in application in their respective countries.
Vikram Singh, associate director of 100 Resilient Cities programme, told Deccan Chronicle that he was impressed by the many examples of community volunteerism in the aftermath of the flood.
“Of course, there were gaps in terms of how a situation could have been handled better. But the fact that the corporation worked to put the city back on its feet in four, five days and that there was no epidemic outbreak deserves appreciation,” he said.
Singh added that the action plan is likely to be put in motion within a period of 9-12 months. The Corporation, however, is yet to appoint a Chief Resilient Officer for the programme, a key demand of Rockefeller Foundation. “We understand that elections are upon the state. We expect that until the new regime takes charge, there won’t be much of a forward movement but we already have the seal of approval from the government,” Singh said.
