Jose K Joseph, OP
Bhubaneswar: With an hour’s rain leaving the capital waterlogged at many places, people expressed concern about the Smart City’s ability and infrastructure to manage storm water.
It is an open secret that Bhubaneswar, Number 1 Smart City in the country, doesn’t have a perfect drainage or sewage system. In fact, this is the main reason that compelled the civic body to open a dedicated 24X7 control room (landline No-0674-2430038) to address water-logging during monsoon.
Interestingly, the absence of drainage or sewage system makes it hard even for top civic body officials to indentify how much millimeter (mm) rain the city can handle without water-logging.
“Our additional commissioners are given the responsibility to manage critical issues relating to storm water management. This apart, a team of eight engineers with support staff is also working with the control room. But, we have some issue related to drainages and sewage system and those will be sorted out soon,” admitted a top official of Bhubaneswar Development Authority.
Meanwhile, the urban planners suggested that the civic body has to set some benchmarks for dealing with water-logging issues in the monsoon. “Officials have to identify how much mm rain the city can deal without water-logging. On a stage by stage manner, this benchmark (mm mark) has to be raised. This will help us deal with downpour, like the one in Mumbai,” said urban city planner, Piyush Ranjan Rout.
Environmentalists also blamed the concrete floor, titled roads and unscientific urban planning for the situation. “Increasing urbanisation ignored the importance of drainage and filled up many streams and water bodies. This apart, garbage chocked the drains. So, the rainwater is not finding a way out. This is causing the wastage of rainwater and groundwater recharge is also getting affected. In fact, the construction activities ignored or covered some of the drains. Therefore, the unscientific planning worsened the situation,” said Sundar Narayan Patro, president, Orissa Environment Society.
Ultimately, the commuters, especially two-wheeler riders are finding it hard to identify hidden potholes on waterlogged roads.
“Even if it rains for 20 minutes, many areas like Rasulgarh get waterlogged. The underground cabling and development activities also add to the problems. So, the water-logging makes commuting risky at these patches. Therefore, the civic body has to come up with a master plan for saving the city from water-logging,” said Biranchi Mohapatra, a two-wheeler rider.