In Patna, a wealthy person had built a beautiful house in 1985. But a waterlogging menace showed up the moment a concrete road higher than his house-plinth came up in 2005.
Countless urban citizens are facing a similar problem as the height of the adjoining roads has been raised more than the age-old plinth levels, which forces rainwater to flow into the houses. The suffering of the inmates is so terribly bad that any crime can take place against the authorities and contractors who commit such a public sin hardly discussed or recognised as a worst type of civic evil.
In a State like Bihar, infamous for perpetual anarchy and chaos, the conscious citizens adversely affected raised a strong voice of protest against the raised roads, which the authorities seemed not to hear at all. So, they moved the High Court, which instantly ruled that the authorities are squarely responsible for the disaster and be punished heavily by paying up for all damages. Demolition of the faulty roads was the final order by the court. Rattled, urban development and housing department officials lost no time in issuing a circular to all urban local bodies across the State to ensure no single road is built with its height above the level and they are expected to keep a vigil on road construction activities in urban areas to ensure that the height of new roads is not more than the plinth height of the abutting houses.
lately, all urban locations of Odisha, barring not one, are experiencing this sinful act by pinhead, numbskull rogue engineers and planners who are happy with their booty and happily oblivious of the grave suffering of people. In 2014, three young men, after suffering due to the raised concrete roads constructed by the Works Department–pampered contractors, moved the consumers court and got some temporary relief as they were of the prevailing High Court rulings elsewhere. They also alerted the Urban Development Principal Secretary, who hauled up the Works Secretary Nalini Pradhan and ordered him to go for a spot visit and place the fact-finding report in a day. This magnificently trained engineer probably came up with a hell of a report, which said roads had to be raised to make drains deeper. Strangely, the Works Secretary did not know drains are dug deeper to keep original height of city surfaces intact. In case water does not get the usual slopes, pump stations are made to push water away from the location. He did not further know the basic principle of not committing any sin of inconveniencing even a single citizen ever with any wrongful public decision or act. Injeti Srinivas, not fully satisfied with the Works Secretary’s contractor-colleague friendly note, sent out a circular of ‘No more concrete roads, only bitumen-blacktop’, which has been eaten up midway and has not yet seen the light of day.
Concrete roads, as we see them in Odisha, are constructed with the worst cement, never cured fully, and are left with dangerously sharp edges as one gets to see in the rural regions which are causing accidents while even two bicycles are crossing each other. Not a single politician or development official has raised voice against the horrific roads that are causing more harm than good to the innocent masses. Blacktop roads are smoother with naturally forming sly edges. Rogue contractors with political patronage do not have to invest in bitumen laying machinery and have no fear of having to pay standard-priced stuff from the petroleum companies. Concrete roads require only a few pieces of wood planks and non-skilled labour to make concrete and pour blindly.
Bitumen laying requires skilled labour. All the pain apart, when roads are repaired every now and then due to unforgivable poor quality of construction, contractors keep making money nearly every two years. What most town planners forget is the subsoil piping, cables and more go deeper and deeper becoming difficult to repair and maintain.
Experts have invariably attributed the uncontrolled increase in road height to faulty and corrupt construction practices. In the States where officials are educated and aware of laws have ordered the upper layer of the existing road to be excavated first, the debris removed and then put the freshly-prepared layer, thereby maintaining the age-old road height. However, most contractors have been flouting the norms while making roads in cities and going unpunished only because of support from rogue engineers and politicians who merrily rob part of the loot.
Why more terrible flooding now than before:
little open soil: diminished chances for percolation of water. Hence, all precipitation needs to be transported through failsafe, robust drainage systems.
Rapid and unplanned urbanisation: poor urban planning without appropriate engineering and natural drainage system components considered seriously; permitting slums to come up without provision for smooth flow of storm water with respect to the ground contours; encroachment of drains by slum dwellers, small shopkeepers, motor garages and garbage dumping yards.
Clogging of water carriers: accumulation of dust, garbage chocked gully gratings, bell mouths of roads and inlets; obstruction due to underground utilities such as water line / sewer lines / electrical cables running along / across the drains.
letting of sewage in storm water drains due to lack of sewerage network.
Natural drainage by using slopes of a city is now a forgotten technique. Half-baked town planners and engineers keep focusing on artificial beautification by high-level roads and parks across all places without considering the nature-made contours. Ring roads in most riverside cities have no culverts to discharge excess water even when the cities have the base above the riverbed. And the huge flyovers look great but cause excessive flooding!
Most hubs across cities, particularly bus-stands, markets and housing complexes have been brought up on buried water bodies and wetlands.
Many streams with natural slopes feeding the rivers have been levelled to make room for concrete jungle. The CDA human habitation in Cuttack has come up in the heart of Kathjodi riverbed. When brainless human experts tamper with surfaces where rainwater is supposed to rest or flow, people are bound to live with the wrath of floods.
Civilised societies of yore planned small cities with great tracts of forestland play fields for the young ones. Once the locations exceed a desirable population size, authorities discourage any further growth to keep the residents happy with ease of movement, air blowing freely and water flowing naturally along the God-made slopes to seep into wetlands and water bodies that have developed over millenniums as per nature’s wish.
Only port and capital and lately ‘money cities’ grow uncontrollably because of multifarious economic activities that provide living to the needy. But then, these centres too follow strict rules to make sure life is easy without flooding, traffic congestion and garbage piling up everywhere.
Modern civic bodies are constantly working at creating systems to keep cities vibrantly livable and smart in the sense they are highly comfortable for pedestrians and cyclists; and the poor communities have access to affordable transport facilities.
Smart cities are not recognised by fast internet connections, malls and multiplexes or mono rails; they make the poorest live without fear of hunger, deprivation or exploitation. Smart cities have huge stretches of green cover, free portable water taps and the friendliest law enforcement agencies that treat victims of crime with respect.
Bhubaneswar, for sure, was studied and evaluated by experts when it was springtime. If the super brains had seen the city in midsummer or rainy times, the heat, humidity and the overflowing sewers on roads would have scared them away for good.
All the same, we have a great administration with dedicated officials and frontline delivery agencies that think, plan and implement great schemes collaboratively to turn most of the Odisha urban locations into paradise. The State functionaries should find tasks easy when people share their woes with them. Precious research expenses are saved for a greater good when people report ground situations to the authorities.
Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur or any other city will stand out as enviably livable only when they stop growing indiscriminately. Satellite city days have been in since decades.
Urban planners and civic authorities need to just wake up and look wide-eyed and ears pricked to know what they should be doing.
Small is beautiful; big is bad at all times.
(The writer is a core member of Transparency International, Odisha)