Food for Thought

Those having to negotiate city roads during a downpour really know how frightening urban floods can be, even as city developers toy with their fates from their safe vantage points.

The water gets everywhere between posts, walls and built-up structures. There is no way to detect what lies underneath, apart from poking about warily with the foot to avoid open manholes or drains.

It is a desperate struggle mostly waged in darkness as the power authority discontinues electricity during the rains to prevent electrocution deaths from snapped power lines.

But death by drowning is the other hazard as people are swept away and trapped by torrential floodwater in the drains.

The death of an 8-year-old boy at Chandmari in Guwahati this July is the latest addition to such heart-rending incidents during the monsoons.

In earlier years, a senior citizen at a waterlogged bus-stop in Zoo Road in the city could not make out the large open drain behind and was sucked away; a mother hastening home in Gandhi Basti area was torn away from her child as she inadvertently stepped into a 5-feet deep open drain beside a railway level crossing.

Such deaths are preventable. Surveys should be carried out just before and during the rainy season to identify threats like open drains, manholes and stormwater channels.

These can be appropriately covered, their sides protected with guard rails, their openings safeguarded with grates. Cleaning the debris should proceed simultaneously.

The absurd practice of removing concrete covers for long periods from drains and pavements, ostensibly for easier cleanup, must be stopped. Construction works on roads and drains should cease during the rains.

The departments concerned need to plan and work together, apply their minds, and hold employees accountable for lapse and negligence. Public safety cannot be sacrificed at the altar of drainage.  

Also Read: Food for Thought (sentinelassam.com)

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