Anyone who has studied history knows that the people of the Indus Valley civilisation built cities and towns with excellent drainage and sewage systems. Five thousand years later, have we in India moved forward or backward?
Anyone who has studied history knows that the people of the Indus Valley civilisation built cities and towns with excellent drainage and sewage systems. Five thousand years later, have we in India moved forward or backward?
The rains ( 2015 )in Tamil Nadu have caused havoc on the streets of Chennai and elsewhere. Twitter and Facebook are full of photographs and videos of the flooding, even if the TV channels and newspapers have tended to ignore the story.
Vehicular traffic has been severely affected, power supply disrupted at many places, trains have been cancelled, rescheduled or diverted, and the life of the citizen – ordinary and “VIP” – thrown out of gear. Even the Chief Minister’s car is reported to have been stranded.
The misery which has unfolded is, of course, not unique to Tamil Nadu.
All across India – from Srinagar to Chennai and Mumbai to Dibrugarh – rain is inevitably followed by water-logging on the streets of cities, causing immense suffering to the people.
In September 2014, heavy rains turned the capital of Jammu and Kashmir into a lake, with many localities submerged under 20-30 feet of water. In my home town of Allahabad, many localities like Allahpur and Mumfordganj go under several feet of water every year after heavy rains.
Kolkata’s waterlogged streets are well known, and parts of Delhi, e.g. Minto Bridge, have severe waterlogging in the monsoons. What is the cause of this?
The reason is simple to understand. Urban greed has destroyed our drainage systems.
Rains come every year in the monsoon or rainy season, and so there has to be a proper drainage system to take away the water, otherwise it will accumulate and cause waterlogging. Historically, indeed, all the way up to British rule and for some time thereafter, there were drainage systems in every city in India which were properly maintained by the municipalities.
There is water logging on almost all roads in Delhi with several feet of water, and people cannot move about.
How did this happen ?
I have explained the cause in this article.https://thewire.in/urban/how-urban-greed-washed-away-the-accummulated-wisdom-of-indias-past
5000 years ago our ancestors built the Harappa Mohenjodaro Civilisation. They were wise, and knew that every year there will be rains during the monsoon season. So they built an excellent drainage system to carry away the rain water.Our British rulers also built a drainage system in all Indian cities.But our people out of their greed have built houses, shops etc ( illegally) on these drains, and choked and destroyed them.So naturally there will be water logging every year, since the water cannot flow away. In my own home town Allahabad every year some localities are 10 feet under water during the rainy season. Similar is the situation in many Indian cities.So you reap what you sow