nThough Tamil Nadu is being battered by heavy downpour of northeast monsoon in the last quarter of every year since 2015, the State Government has failed to put in place an effective flood mitigation system, according to former bureaucrats who are specialised in town planning.
The Indian Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rain in the State from October 25 as part of the northeast monsoon. But there is no foolproof storm water drains in Chennai or other major cities, if reports appearing in Tamil news channels and local media are any indication.
The 2015 flood crippled Chennai and surrounding areas and claimed more than 200 lives. Absence of storm water drain was cited as one of the reasons for the flood which ravaged the metropolis for almost three weeks. “Even now, the general public are in the dark about storm water drains. They cannot distinguish between storm water drain and sewage drainage,” said Prof S Vincent, former head of Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology. He had submitted an action plan to the Chennai Corporation in 2009 itself to fortify the storm water drains in the city. He had scanned the entire drain length with GPS and had pointed out the missing links as well as the regions where the storm water drains and sewage drains were mixed up. “It seems no concrete action has been taken,” said Dr Vincent.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami convened a meeting of all government officials to prepare an action plan to counter any kind of floods which may pose threat to the city. The 2015 flood had caused the city Rs 26,000 crore according to officials in the State Secretariat. But a recent report by the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change has come out with a report in which it is mentioned that coastal cities like Chennai and Mumbai loss $6 billion per year because of this recurring floods.
The Tamil Nadu Government said in a release on Tuesday that it has positioned nearly 10,000 first responders across the State and steps have been taken to store the excess water. “The Government has kept ready 121 multi-purpose halls, 4768 schools, 105 colleges, 2394 marriage halls and community centers to accommodate the victims of the flood,” said the release.
Chennai becomes the most unwelcome of all places once rain lashes out across the city. The roads get water logged and traffic comes to a grinding halt. Deaths due to electrocution are galore in the metropolis as Tamil Nadu Generation and Power Distribution Corportaion’s live wires fall into pools of water. For the next few months, Chennai turns into a forbidden land, according to KA Johnny, writer and commentator.