Well now, a majority of Bhubaneswar's wise men, thinkers and ordinary citizens have forgotten the Black Monday evening rainfall of July 31. But being an urban planner exploring what went wrong and where lie the solutions is what often keeps me busy. Because I believe Bhubaneswar used to be a 'paradise' with beautiful summers, winters, monsoons, autumns and springs in our childhood. But those days are long gone. The city now has no spring, has an extended summer and erratic monsoon; autumn is in name's sake and winter is warm.
Bhubaneswar, unlike global cities, is getting waterlogged during the rains, even leading to people being washed away in flood waters. The truth is that the situation has arisen over the years as a result of poor urban planning, poor governance, defunct engineering and a silent political system that has effectively fooled people year after year with false promises.
The difference between a waterlogged city and one that does not face the problem is an understanding of the geography of the city to ensure that rain water flows with the topography rather than working against it.
Let’s take the case of Rotterdam, the port city of Netherlands. It has found innovative solutions to waterlogging, although 90 per cent of its topography lies below sea level and the city itself is sinking. There is no waterlogging or flooding and water remains a central, existential part of life in this Dutch city. It is a part of national identity.
Earlier, the Dutch used to pump or flush water out of their city. Today they have changed that paradigm and allow water to occupy space wherever possible and live in harmony with it. Rotterdam have created lakes, parks and plazas that make city life pleasant and also help conserve water.
By contrast, in Odisha, the civic bodies have plans, which only include spending over a thousand crore rupees on expanding, widening and increasing the height of existing drainage systems. Over the years, the city has expanded hugely and many roads or ring roads have been laid, forming more grids. However, during such development, drainage systems were grossly ignored. The result is that the drainage network grew without being connected with each other and city's open marshy lands shrank, while roads and flyovers added to the city's waterlogging problems year after years.
What would make sense for Bhubaneswar is to move beyond investing on a drainage system into converting the drainage system into flood control system by connecting them with each other and creating artificial underground wells in the absence of open spaces. Bhubaneswar can take clue from Rotterdam and Tokyo and find own version of solutions.
Tokyo, and the rest of Japan, has a long history of devastating and deadly floods, which often left the rapidly urbanising nation's cities and towns underwater. Although Japan did build water channels, the deadly stream of six floods in the 1980s, which left tens of thousands of homes in Tokyo damaged, was a wake-up call. The leaders of Japan paid special attention to the situation ever since.
In 1992 Tokyo commissioned the construction of the world's largest drainage system. The concept was simple. The plan connected existing rivers and waterways to overflow pipes and drains. This allowed the above ground drainage system in central Tokyo to continue in operation, while its overall capacity was massively expanded underground.
The underground system was composed of 5 giant cisterns that collects excess water from rivers and waterways. Each cylindrical shaft measures about 70 meters in height and 30 meters in diameter, spacious enough to park a space shuttle.
These cisterns are connected by 6.5 kilometres of tunnels 10 meters wide and buried 50 metres deep. The tunnels allowed the cisterns to provide capacity support to each other. The pipes take the water from the cisterns to an enormous pressure controlled tank. This tank measures 177 metres long, 78 metres wide, and 18 metres tall. 59 pillars of 500 tonnes each support the ceiling and break up the power of incoming water. This enormous structure is dubbed "the temple" by visitors as there are tours during low-water periods of the year. The inside of the tank has even been used in music videos and movies.
On the contrary, the World Rowing Championships was held on the outskirts of Rotterdam in an area called Eendragtspolder, a 22-acre patchwork of reclaimed fields and a prime example of converting challenges into opportunities. It means instead of flushing water into the seas collected flood water, in an area that’s lowest height in The Netherlands about 20 feet below sea level. It is now a popular retreat for the Dutch with its cycling paths and water sports facilities.
Bhubaneswar, too, did not have a history of waterlogging prior to the nineties. It arose as a problem as the city changed its urban planning ideology. Waterlogging is now an annual affair that is worsening with each passing year and covering wider territory. It has happened as a result of massive construction of roads, construction of natural drains and replacement of natural hedges by concrete walls around property. Swamps have been taken over by buildings, which has led to massive reduction of water percolation and storage. Climate change may have a role to play in excess rainfall but cannot be the sole excuse.
Bhubaneswar needs smart investment to protect against extreme weather events that are more likely in the future. The city can prevent waterlogging by connecting its natural drainage channels and restoring its natural storage, rather than flushing water to the rivers.
(Dr Rout can be reached at Twitter@piyushrout)