A call for integrated flood management

What is the issue?

• Due to the onset of northeast monsoon, Chennai is seriously worried with flooding concerns.
• It is clear that Chennai needs integrated flood management, especially the revival of lakes and water tanks.

What is the present scenario?

• Chennai is a lower elevation coastal city with a very high population density.
• The torrential rains are exceeding the normal by 93% in the period of four days from November 1 leaving residents in a state of despair.
• Flood waters stranded people in the rapidly growing suburban housing clusters, with many having to flee to safer places fearing a deluge as in 2015.
• There have been efforts to alleviate immediate misery through the distribution of relief materials in some places.
• The larger issue of how the city deals with flood and drought cycles remains unaddressed.

What are the shortfalls in planning?

• Many traditional lakes and canals that existed in the city’s core a century ago to absorb the intense downpour are left unpreserved.

• Successive governments have allowed the mindless draining of wetlands and their conversion into expensive real estate, with catastrophic consequences.
• Regrettably, the great flood two years ago has not yielded a policy course correction.
• Poor waste management is exacerbating the problem by blocking drains, canals and lakes.
• At the same time it is also noted that ill-planned road projects are blocking smooth flow of excess water.

What should be done?

• The state government must move beyond the creation of weak storm water drains to an integrated flood management system.
• Chennai should return to the traditional wisdom of creating tanks and lakes for water storage.
• More importantly, old silted ones have to be rejuvenated, in order to harvest the floods and replenish the depleted groundwater.
• Involving the community to monitor the health of the tanks and lakes can keep out encroachers, who are often protected by patron-politicians.
• The deficit of good housing and civic infrastructure must actively be addressed and remedial structures should be built for existing localities.

Source: The Hindu