It is only a week since the North East monsoon has set in, but Chennai and neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur have come to a standstill with heavy downpour. South Chennai and its suburbs — which bore the brunt of the devastating December 2015 deluge — are the ones that are affected by the floods once again. Tamil Nadu government seems to have learnt little from the massive floods.
So far, Chennai has received 93 percent more rainfall from the NE Monsoon even as the Met department forecast more downpour due to a low pressure persisting in the Bay of Bengal. Schools and colleges continued to remain shut from October 31 and several universities have postponed semester exams. The state government started mobile medical camp in Chennai, Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts to prevent the spread of diseases.
The precarious flood situation in Mudichur, Varadharajapuram, Adhanur, Urapakkam, Kovilambakkam, Madipakkam and Velachery raises the questions over the flood mitigation works undertaken by the government administration.
The public works department spent Rs 19 crore to widen and deepen the Adyar River in September as part of the NE Monsoon flood mitigation works. "We complained to the district collector and PWD officials that the widening work was taken up without marking boundaries of the river. We also wanted the height of the bund to be raised to the level of 10 feet. Our pleas were not heard. Now we are flooded once again," said president of Federation of Varadharajapuram Welfare Associations, V Rajasekaran.
Professor S Janakarajan, water resource expert and retired professor of Madras Institute of Development Studies, finds fault with the government's flood management policy. "Main problem is that the government acts only after the monsoon starts. For them, preparedness means keeping the earthmover and oil engine to pump out the water ready. They don't have a long-term plan on flood management," he said.
Janakarajan asks the government to stop looking at the rainfall as a burden. "We should have a dual policy of conserving water and flood management," he said, urging the government to think along the lines of conserving water.
None of the lakes that are overflowing in the Chennai suburbs were neither desilted nor deepened by the government. "There are 30 lakes in Tambaram taluk which is severely hit by floods. If those lakes are freed from encroachments, desilted and deepened, the floods could have been prevented," said V Subramanian, founder secretary of Sabari Green Foundation in Chennai. Another reason for the widespread flooding in the South Chennai and its suburbs was the destruction of Pallikaranai Marshland which would earlier act as buffer zone absorbing overflowing waters from these lakes, he said.
However, a senior PWD official claimed that the flood was mainly because of the heavy downpour. "In the first week of the monsoon, we have got over 74 percent of the average rainfall during the entire monsoon. If not for the pre-monsoon works, the flood impact might have been more in Mudichur and Varadharajapuram areas," the official claimed.
Over 10k shifted
- At least 12 people killed in rains in Tamil Nadu this week.
- Over 10,000 people shifted to 105 state-run relief camps in Chennai.
- Schools in Chennai, other coastal towns continue to remain closed.
- The northeast monsoon expected to last until early December.
