Chennai Corporation lacks vision to tackle December like floods, says Architect

Chennai: The Greater Chennai Corporation has no vision to tackle floods like the one the city faced in December last year, a renowned city-based architect, Sriram Ganapathi, said on Friday.

To avoid such disasters, the number of reservoirs should be increased. People should not only focus on individual building but on collective building, he said in a lecture on safety and conservation of heritage structures, organised by the National Centre for Safety of heritage structures.

He said, “ We need water connections as much as roads. Catch ment areas and percolation areas are very important. Earlier, we had wells and temple tanks, which percolated and soaked water, but now it has reduced. Dissipation of water is very necessary.”

He added that dredging of rivers should be done on a regular basis. Sharing his experience in the aftermath of Chennai floods, he said the Chennai Corporation had no vision to avoid any such disaster in future.

“After the Chennai floods, one needs to think of not just individual building but about the neighbour as a whole.” Stephen J. Kelly, heritage conservation specialist & Adjunct professor in Columbia University Graduate programme, explained about the anthropogenic effects of global climate change. He said perspiration, rising temperature, rise in sea level, change in rainfall pattern, insect migration, continuous landslide and increase in earthquake are anthropogenic climate changes.

“There will be a sea level rise by 2050. Bangladesh and Kolkata close to the sea will be affected, if there is no mitigation. Monsoon trends from 1961 to 2004 show that the amount of rainfall received has increased in May and June across India,” he said.