CITY SET FOR DELUGE can't handle the rains

CITY SET FOR DELUGE can't handle the rains

What you see here is a huge problem but our civic agencies, it seems, believe it's nothing

Bosky Khanna & Shwetha S. Bangalore



It took 90 cm of rain in a day to drown Mumbai on July 26, 2005. But just one-tenth of that, according to experts, can cause havoc in Bangalore. And here's the best part: Our civic agencies have totally ignored a crucial rain data recorded by the Indian meteorology department (IMD).
The data, which is the written period of rainfall (WPR), is a day-to-day record of the intensity of rain the city receives in 24 hours. The figure, according to IMD officials, can be used to avoid flooding incidents like the one on May 31, when the city witnessed a heavy downpour. The data can help civic agencies design storm water drains on slopes, structures on various terrains and valleys to flush water out and avoid instances of water-logging, which is a perennial problem in the city. The data, IMD officials say, can help solve the city's drain issues and help avoid tragedies like Abhishek's.
"This data is available for the civic agencies, but we have never received any requisition from them for it," a senior IMD official told DNA. Civic bodies in Coimbatore and Chennai regularly refer to such data before planning their infrastructure. Mumbai too has corrected its infrastructure following the 2005 deluge.
"In the past, when the city was much smaller, it used to face rain of up to 19-cm in a day. But after all this development, if something like that happens now, there will be a big deluge," the IMD official added.
According to civic experts AS Kodandapani, urban planner from Plan-Arch, Samuel Paul, chairman of Public Affairs Centre, and urban planner V Ravichander of Feedback Consulting, a proper drainage plan can solve the issues because Bangalore is located at 3,000 feet above sea-level and has several lakes that could act as drains.