Team Herald
PANJIM: Solutions for a capital city that is free of floods during the monsoons are far, as Panjim year after year sees water clogging and inundation of roads.
The only solution in the vision of those in power is to reconstruct the city’s drains in place of the decades old drains constructed during the Portuguese rule.
Panjim Mayor Surendra Furtado said a survey has been carried out along with the team of Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL) and a plan is being chalked out to reconstruct the Portuguese era drains. “If we begin the work immediately after the rains then the next year probably will be different and we may have a flooding-free city,” he added.
But till then, Panjim will have to live with flooding. During the last 48 hours, incessant rains in the State, threw life out of gear in Panjim with traffic jams due to flooding and inundation.
Despite the drainage cleaning and pre-monsoon works carried out by the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), the capital city continues to suffer from the flooding. While motorists drive through the flooded roads splashing water all over, the worst affected are pedestrians forced to walk through the murky waters which at some places are as high as one and a half feet.
Firstly, as claimed by Furtado, the gushing water flow along with it brings down the hills of Altinho and Taleigao mud and paper and plastic waste which choke the outlets of the drains into the river, leading to overflowing drains and inundation. The question is whether CCP is not carrying out the cleaning of the drains while it pours down daily.
Furtado said, “It is not possible with the human resources that I have to everyday carryout the cleaning. We get the work done from private people and the orders are issued by DMA. From where do we get the money to pay the labour? We have a team of 10 workers who know the points where the drains get chocked and they clear them.”
Secondly, the capital city has numerous trees which shed leaves and the leaves clog the drains. The Mayor expressing his inability to dispose the waste said, “Where do we put all the garden waste? We do not have space to dump the garden waste. I have asked even the Chief Minister to help us with that and he has said that there will be solution in 10 days. It is practically not possible even if I want to put trucks and labour and lift the waste.”
