Since 2015, the northeast monsoon season descended as a cataclysm on Chennai.
The impending monsoon brings a measure of foreboding and anxiety to residents.
What is the status of Chennai in 2015 monsoon?
The unprecedented heavy rain between November 30 and December 2 in 2015 was due to active El Nino.
The quantum of rainfall was high, but it was not the rain alone that was responsible for the disaster that followed.
A key element that is still being pointed out was the reportedly tardy release of excess water from Chembarambakkam Lake.
Which flooded the entire city and led to the loss of many lives and property worth several crores.
Rampant encroachments that stood in the path of the water, giving residents insufficient warning to leave their homes, as the floodwaters raced to the city.
Water entered homes, over several floors, and washed out people and their possessions.
What are the impacts of recent monsoon showers in Chennai?
The monsoon of 2017 came, after a summer of drought, as the city struggled to find water from multiple sources to meet its drinking water needs.
Chennai district has so far registered 674.8 mm of rain this season, this is 70% more than the average of 397.9 mm for the season.
The city’s four reservoirs that had dried out are still only over a third full.
The first showers were intense and left many parts in a shambles water logging on the roads and water entering homes in low-lying areas.
People had to move away, afraid that the next shower would lead to a repeat of the nightmare of 2015.
According to initial estimates by the Chennai Corporation, at least 15% of the 471 bus route roads were damaged.
115 places were still waterlogged in the city and its suburbs and attributed it to the heavy downpour over five days.
Why the city is so vulnerable?
As the city grew and expanded beyond its core, it was built over water bodies that were cleared out to make space for human settlements.
As more and more people moved to urban areas, these settlements filled out and the resources soon grew inadequate for the burgeoning population dependent on them.
Natural draining paths were built over, In addition, years of rampant encroachment on water bodies and lake beds did not help.
Inadequate monsoon preparation, in terms of desilting tanks and deepening water channels.
Storm water drains and removing encroachment, has not been adequately addressed across the city and suburbs.
Way forward
The city was scarcely prepared for the monsoon, Three years on, the level of preparedness leaves much to be desired.
Environmental activists insist that drastic action to evict encroachers and those who sit on water bodies must be taken.
Better preparedness of official machinery to face the floods across the city, is crucial.
It is the only way a natural calamity is not exacerbated by man-made errors.
