TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: It is only after a storm subsides that one recognizes the full impact of the disaster. The impact that the 9 inches of rainfall Panjim had witnessed last weekend, was much more than the rain filled roads or flooded houses. The impact was the realization of how seriously inadequate and negligent our authorities have been in getting basics like drainage, sewage, maintenance of storm water drains and desilting of creeks and nullahs fixed. And as the blame game has begun and will continue; the time has come to look at the simple things Panjim has failed to fix. Blaming can come later.
For instance look at Tonca where there was waist-high water, a sign that there was no way for the water to go and there was obviously not enough open land for seepage to happen.
In Tonca, the water had gone above the small bridge and the area looked like some disaster zone or some flood-prone zone of Orissa or even Bangladesh.
Mala, where the flooding was perennial some three-four years back, and had been brought under control by pumps; saw major flooding this time with water entering houses and throwing the lives of people out of gear, that too during the Ganesh festival.
There have been allegations from environmentalists and NGOs about the filling up of the fields in the area that once absorbed the water and warnings that flooding would be even more serious in the years to come.
Concretization of the capital and the lack of infrastructure to support major construction projects are the reason why flooding happened. Moreover, the town, that is on the edge of the river faced high tides during the crucial times leading to water not finding a way to get to the river.
“This is a final warning from God,” the Corporation of the City of Panaji mayor Surendra Furtado told Herald, pointing out there were warnings earlier like the one at Canacona, but nobody has been paying any attention to them, even though Panjim received 9 inches of rain in those two days.
However, there has been no effort to check on the storm water drains, and make efforts to ensure that waterways have not been blocked, according to those in the CCP itself, professionals and members of civic society. They also pointed out that the encroachments into areas close to the St Inez Creek have been allowed. And these contribute to major water drains being closed down. There is no marking of ‘no development’ areas close to the creek. The CCP had earmarked a five-metre setback. This is repeatedly flouted depending on connections, and to Panjim’s tragedy, everyone has one.
Meanwhile, there were storm drains and cross drains sanctioned and built during International film Festival of India, breaching the erstwhile Portuguese regime drains. There had been allegations that the storm water drains that came down from Altinho and carries the water into the river were broken while the road was being built and not re-connected. In fact, the new drains were built as far as two metres away from the old storm water drains.
In some cases civic society and CCP members had managed to get the drains connected by ingenuous means including drop chambers (where the surface drains which were higher, were connected to the storm water drains which were below) but at least two drains near Dempo House and one near Kala Academy are apparently not connected in this manner, exacerbating the problem.
The city has to go back to the old Portuguese era plans and trace out the huge cisterns, which have been forgotten or have been deliberately filled up by building contractors. Further, experts say that a proper survey has to be conducted and checked whether the drains are connected and the gutters and nullahs are free of all encumbrances to ensure that the city is free from flooding in the future, to avoid a catastrophe such as faced by Mumbai not so long ago.
