Editorial: Rain mess: Time to find answers

It needs only two hours of rain for the dream destination of IT investors to get flooded beyond imagination. The only relief is that the water pools do not stay for long considering that Bengaluru is known for its ups and downs as far as the terrain is concerned but the damage it causes to households in low-lying areas and to the poor living in little shanties is unimaginable.

Tuesday was one such day which saw rain pelting the city and its populace into submission, flooding as many as 94 underpasses, nerve traffic centres like Central Silk Board Junction and making sure motorists would have to make a trip to the workshop with their cars which were stranded in 3-4 feet high water. And all these are happening when the monsoon is still almost a month away and is predicted to hit the Kerala coast only on May 27 and Karnataka a full ten days later.

Chief Minister Bommai did embark on one of his rare tours of the city and has promised to complete the work on rajakaluves (major storm water drains) soon besides assuring compensation to the kin of two workers who drowned while engaged in pipeline work in Ullal in the city outskirts.

But why is all this happening? The spree of construction activity the city has witnessed in the past few decades to meet housing and business needs has taken a toll on Bengaluru’s natural drainage pathways which it was once blessed with and the rajakaluves too, forcing water torrents to flow into residential areas much to the anguish of citizens. In the outskirts particularly in the 110 villages which were added to BBMP more than a decade ago, water supply and drainage work has been reduced to a snail’s pace for reasons best known to administrators.

Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has identified as many as 174 low-lying areas in the city where the BBMP will have to go to work to find ways to pump out water whenever rain levels reach alarming proportions. There are several multistoried apartment complexes in such areas where the basement inevitably gets flooded when it rains for more than an hour. Area specific solutions is what the city needs urgently so that flooding is reduced and the distress to its working population, who have to make the trip home in the evening hours is kept at the minimum.

Isn’t it time to think about a rapid rain action force to exclusively tackle deluge related issues so that Bengalureans are not left to fend for themselves in neckdeep water whenever the skies open up? Equipped with pumps, tankers and earthmovers, teams of such a force can rush to the affected areas, lessen the damage and even save lives. In the past few years, we have paid too high a cost for rain-related havoc and it’s time the government considers the setting up of such an action force in all seriousness..

Not much different is the situation in the erstwhile capital, Mysuru which has been bearing the brunt of unseasonal rains for many days. Power lines have snapped and water supply has been disrupted leaving residents of this age-old city in despair. As the government goes about its task of tackling rain woes in the state capital, it should not forget these lesser cities where the distress levels are much higher.