A single deluge washes up BBMP's many defects

When it rains, residents in low-lying parts of Bengaluru spend their days flushing out their flooded homes. Roads become waterlogged and dangerous. There are power cuts, damage to property and fallen trees. Even injuries. And we owe it all to our administration. Despite warnings from experts, the Palike has concretised the floors of SWDs which stops percolation, does not have a land management policy to plan for pre and post-monsoon troubles and turns a blind eye to encroachment of rajakaluves and water bodies. A simple solution like rain-water harvesting could mitigate floods and tackle water shortages but without administrative will, B'luru floods and later, lets this precious water drain away. But the BBMP lacks even the data to tackle the problem, reports Aksheev Thakur

It’s a familiar scene by now in the city. Buses, cars and other vehicles making their way through flooded roads, marooned homes and trees fallen by the wayside in just a few hours of rain. While the BBMP swears every year to have cleaned the storm water drains (SWDs) that are meant to carry the rain water, they remain ineffective as ever, overflowing in several areas instead of draining the water away.      

Despite the National Green Tribunal's (NGT) direction that storm water drains cannot carry sewage, not only is this seen in several parts of Bengalurur,  but the SWDs are also widely encroached on, making them unfit to perform the task they were built for . 

On Tuesday, the High Court pulled up the BBMP for the encroachment of rajakaluves and directed the Chief Secretary, TM Vijay Bhaskar to hold weekly meetings of the coordination committee to ensure that the various civic agencies acted in tandem in the interest of the city. 

“None of the health inspectors and ward engineers visit their respective areas. Everyone works in isolation. The catastrophe that we are seeing today was bound to happen in this situation,”  says environmentalist and former IFS officer, Mr Yellappa Reddy, lamenting that the people are forced to bear the brunt of the lack of coordination among the different government agencies.

Take Dr Smruti of J P Nagar, who has every reason to be upset at the way the city has once again flooded in one heavy spell of rain.  “Our  basement was filled with water and it took an entire day for the fire department to flush it out,” she recounts angrily.

Aware of the people’s concerns, civic activists blame the BBMP for  not only overlooking the encroachment of the SWDs, but also concretising their floors  and in the process, stopping the percolation of water and groundwater recharge.

Ask an engineer with the BBMP’s SWD department about the overflowing drains and he claims it has worked on 489 kms of the SWD and refutes reports of overflowing  lakes in several parts of the city. “Engineers have been deployed and every measure is being taken to see that the citizens don’t suffer in heavy  rain,” he insists.

But Mr Yellappa Reddy believes the civic agency has to do a lot more to save the city from the annual flooding it sees in rain.  “Every ward should have a land management policy incorporating the percentage of greenery it should have for the perfect balance of ecology,” he suggests, adding that both pre-monsoon and post-monsoon plans need to be drawn up to prepare the city for the deluge it receives this season. 

How do faulty drains destroy green cover?
With every downpour, the city loses some of its green cover and civic  activists blame the faulty design of its drains. Says Tree Doctor, Vijay Nishanth,  “In most parts of the city, the roots of the trees are concretised or cut while constructing drains,  weakening them. In fact, we have come across fallen trees with fresh leaves. Isn’t this terrible?” He regrets that although the BBMP had promised to complete the green survey before the onset of the monsoon, it did not keep to its word. “Had the tree census been carried out earlier it would certainly  have helped matters,” he says, alleging that it is being deliberately delayed as it may not augur well for both city officials and politicians. “The day the census is done things it will bring in  transparency, which the BBMP officials and political parties are trying to avoid,” he claims. In 2015, the BBMP had set aside Rs 4 crore for doing a tree survey, but has still not got down to it, although it did show signs of waking up from its inertia in May this year. “Had it been done before the onset of monsoon the weak trees could have been either strengthened or removed,” point out green activists. While the BBMP forest cell claims to be too short staffed to conduct the green survey, other officers of the civic agency make all the right reassuring noises. “The census will be done shortly. We are at it. Some of the weak trees were removed before the monsoon,” claims one official.