In recent times, we have seen the ‘Smart City’ of Bhubaneswar struggling with waterlogging and floods if there are rains for a few days or in many places for a few hours.
If one observes the city’s roads minutely, one finds that year after year the Government is ensuring top-up on the roads for their maintenance. And by this, the road heights are increasing every year.
The houses which were constructed at a higher foundation than the roads are now pretty much lower than the road level. And once there is heavy rain, the rainwater gushes into houses. The man-made flood is the reason of faulty execution of plans.
Instead of top up, the contractors need to clear the old roads and then they should construct a new one. But that never happens and we the dumb citizens never raise our voice. It’s not that the city is not having drains! But the problems with the drains are that many of them are either encroached or don’t have proper end points. They are not even adequate in number release the water load during heavy downpours. In some cases the drain levels are higher than the road levels. When after construction a drain is covered permanently, within a year it gets clogged. Then, the cover is broken and drain is reconstructed and the process goes on. The drains are not capable enough to discharge the water. Many habitations lack drainage facilities also.
Many drains overflow making the area waterlogged. The land encroachment by the slum dwellers is another challenge.
They usually occupy the lower lands those are available near any habitations.These lower lands if remain as unused can handle a lot of water by way of containing the water or absorbing it.
But unfortunately the city has around 436 recognised slums (out of which 73per cent are unauthorised) and most of them are struggling with storm water during rainy season. Over and above, the State is providing the slum dwellers land rights under Jaga Mission. It would be wise to provide them housing facilities as per their eligibility rather than let them illegally occupy the land. This issue is always discussed and known to everyone.
The city growth has gifted us many concrete structures and in many cases the water bodies have been encroached and converted into concrete structures. The natural system of water absorption has been completely stopped in many locations.
As a result, the houses constructed in those locations are getting marooned and the people are shouting about water logging and flood.
They forget that they are actually staying in a natural water body and when there is rain, it's natural that water will come to those places and it will either make a flood or stay there for few days. In Bhubaneswar the construction of integrated sewerage lines is like rubbing salt into wounds. The JICA assisted project has been happening in Odisha for last 15-20 years.
In many places the contractors are tearing the road and leaving it as it is without repairing. This is another reason of water logging in many locations of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. No one knows when the works will be completed in the cities.
In the name of city beautification the service providers have used all the open lands near the roads which once were able to absorb some amount of rain water. Now everything is cement-concrete. So when there is rain the water flows on the road making it difficult for the vehicles to run. And the continuity of this destroys the road quickly and then the Government in the name of repair top up them with coal tar making the road higher than the houses and the flood situation continues. This is called a vicious cycle of urban flooding.
Only construction of drains will not solve the problem. This is not an engineering issue only; this has a social dimension also. Unless we address that, we are not going to reach at the solution. At present, we are getting less rain days and experiencing heavy spells.
This has contributed a lot to flooding woes. It is said that an increase by 1 degree in temperature will lead to 5percent more rain. We are ignoring the issue of climate vagaries; hence, the urban water management will remain a big challenge for coming years. So, time has come to think about a ‘Sponge City’ which can absorb the excess water rather than the so-called smart city. Then, what is this sponge city? A sponge city is one that is designed to passively absorb, clean and use rainfall in an ecologically friendly way.
The associated techniques include absorbent roads, rooftop gardens, rainwater harvesting, rain gardens, green space, blue space such as ponds and lakes, adequate drainage system etc. Even the author wishes to include urban agriculture to this, which can use the excess water for growing food crops.
(Dr Dixit is a sustainable development professional working with Practical Action (UK Charity) now. Email: birutuku@gmail.com Mobile: 9437031660)