Editorial: Comfortably numb

Heavy rains which began on Thursday noon continued unabated for seven hours throwing life out of gear. The weather phenomenon which came out of the blue, and was not predicted either by the experts in the meteorology department or popular weather bloggers, had caught everyone by surprise by the ferocity of its intent. The city was brought to its knees on every major stretch due to the inundation that assumed an apocalyptic dimension reminiscent of the Chennai floods of Dec 2015.

Thursday night’s spell took the city’s total rainfall quantum to 223 cm this year, as compared to the 210 cm recorded in 2015. The rainfall recorded on Thursday also overtook December’s monthly average rainfall of 177.4 mm. This week, citizens were confronted with a watery hell as automobiles of every size buckled under the pressure of incessantly surging rainwater, and many right in the middle of some of Chennai’s most important lifelines. From Anna Salai to Poonamallee High Road, multi-hour long traffic pile-ups were witnessed as people left their vehicles behind on the road to escape to safety. Traffic mismanagement had also added to the woes of commuters.

The cloudburst-driven rain led to waterlogging in almost every locality in Chennai. Sadly, it just took one spell of rain to lay bare the state of our stormwater drains that never fail to disappoint us. Three people lost their lives to electrocution too. To say that the city was unprepared for a downpour of this magnitude would be to pass the buck of civic responsibility to an Act of God or force majeure, when it is anything but.

We had just undergone a traumatic episode of inundation during the recent monsoon in November, which had exposed the fallacies of progress perpetuated in the name of building smart cities by the government. Upmarket locations like Alwarpet, MRC Nagar and Mambalam were as affected as low lying areas such as Velachery, or even Porur and Madipakkam. Water mixed with sewage had also entered homes in many parts of the metropolis.

This reminded one of an incident from earlier this month when sewage water from a street in Virugambakkam was being pumped into stormwater drains by Metrowater officials because of a blockage resulting from a road cave-in. Activists and residents had protested back then saying this would cause damage to the environment as the water would eventually end up in the Adyar river. This begs the question, what were the officials responsible for the upkeep of stormwater drains doing in the immediate aftermath of the November 7, 2021 rains?

Two months post the monsoon, our drains have not been desilted to an extent that could have at least kept the arterial roads clear of inundation. Two weeks ago, an environmental NGO had pointed out that a city-wide survey was conducted to map out the spread of stormwater drains between Dec 2020 and Feb 2021. The map had clearly annotated gradients, reverse flows and issues could have been dealt with feasibly in the last eight months. Instead, we have found ourselves in the midst of yet another deluge.

The real tragedy is that this will not be the last time we will be held to ransom by an adverse weather event. If the State government is really keen on putting its money where its mouth is, we deserve some respite from such shoddy workmanship on Chennai’s roads and its stormwater drains. With the powers vested in the polity, it must pull up officials or contractors who get away with substandard work, clean up the mess and put together an action plan so that we don’t see a repeat of such episodes in 2022. Maybe, then, we’ll call it a New Year worth celebrating.