It wasn’t 26/7 but it surely washed away BMC’s claims of being prepared for the monsoons. More importantly it put a serious question mark on Mumbai’s dreams of being the next financial hub. A city which shuts down many times during a year can in no way be a financial hub.
The BMC claims helplessness against heavy rains but that is all hogwash. They say where there is a way there is a way. And the major obstacles that stand in the way of Mumbai’s dreams are lack of accountability and transparency and most of all a lack of will to do what it takes.
The BMC claims that Mumbai’s drainage system is capable of draining only 40 mm per hours and if it rains more than that flooding is inevitable. And if it rains during high tide time then even that 40 mm will not drain into the sea. Infact as the images of 30/6 show sea water will flood the city and people can actually fish as they did at Milan Subway on 306 (This was one refreshing sight thanks to Star News)
This begs the question why haven’t we done anything to remedy this. One obvious answer is to increase the capacity of the drainage system. But the BMC says that would take too much money and it is not feasible spend so much just prevent 3-5 days of flooding each year. Hello!!! Do these people understand economics? Each day of flooding means an economic loss of hundreds of crores of rupees which would be prevented if people were able to reach their workplaces. This more than compensates the cost of overhauling the drainage system.
And even if the drainage system cannot be widened have they ever thought of installing high capacity pumps which might be able to draw water through it at say 2-3 times the normal flow and pump it far away into the sea. Ofcourse this would also necessitate throwing the water either far out into the sea or towards the eastern or northern side of the city so that it is not directly against the flow of the sea. I am not an engineer but am pretty sure such a system can be designed. Yes it will involve buying high capacity pumps and require huge power but this is the least expected of a wannabe financial hub.
The other issue is of flooding in many areas even when there is a little bit of rain. Obviously here the problem is that either the water is not able to reach the drainage system or the drains are clogged. Now each a lot of money is spent on declogging the drains. When does this work start? In end of May. Excellent, just when the rains are to arrive. And where is all the silt kept? Just besides the manhole to dry so that when it (unexpectedly) rains the silt is again washed into the very drains it was removed from. How naïve can they get L
So if you are incapable of removing the silt why not prevent it from going into the drain. Well, to BMC’s credit it did try. It banned thin plastic bags which are a major culprit. But it failed miserably in implementing the ban. As a result these bags are back in circulation and must be finding their way into the drains as before. Here I must admit we, the citizens, are the real culprits.
Another problem is open manholes. BMC simply is unable to procure good quality manholes so they break often. And when the manholes do manage to bear the traffic they are stolen. Either way you will find many open manholes which citizens are able to avoid in normal weather but when everything is under water there is no way you can spot them.
Then there are poorly made roads and pavements which give way easily during the rains and make the ordeal of navigating the roads even tougher. Does BMC ever fine those who did that shoddy work? Yeah, I might be doing so but then it gives the contract to (shoddily) rebuild those roads to the same people. You should see the newly built roads and pavements in the suburbs. Even after spending much more time than is really needed to make them the finishing is so poor that you would be inclined to withdraw the engineering degree or whatever those people have obtained.
There are so many simple things which can be done to make life easier for Mumbaikars during the rains. Though the Met Dept fails miserably at giving the next day’s forecast I believe it is very much capable of giving an accurate prediction of rains for the next 1-2 hours. If only a medium was made available for them to get the forecast across to the people. The trains are the lifeline of Mumbai. Surely some system can be designed to prevent flooding on the tracks (like pumps). And the clogged drains, manholes and poor roads can also be taken care of easily. It won’t cost them a single paisa more. Only the BMC officials will have to stop filling their pockets and put their foot down for once. Just watch how the quality of work would improve.
Frankly it all is a matter of will which the administration has failed to show time and again.
