The Hindu : Waterlogging: tall claims come crashing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 25, 2002

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Waterlogging: tall claims come crashing

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 24 . All the tall claims about desilting and pre-monsoon preparedness made by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi fell flat today with massive waterlogging problems being reported from all over the Capital after the heavy downpour this morning.

Several roads and streets were converted into pools of water leaving a large number of vehicles stranded. As drains in a number of colonies started overflowing as desilting had not been done, quite a number of houses in these colonies were inundated with rain water. Even parts of the Lutyen's Delhi including Connaught Place faced a similar problem. Waterlogging cases were also reported from Chanakyapuri, Sarojini Nagar and Mathura Road.

``It is a flood-like situation for us. The drain is entirely chocked. Despite our request to the area Councillor and the local MCD officials, it has not been cleaned. Water has once again entered our rooms,'' said Manjeet Singh Chug, a resident of D-55, South Extension-I. Same was the case in C Block and several other parts of the city.

In fact, today's downpour showed that the civic body had not done much by way of preparedness for the monsoon this year, except for taking up the routine desilting work. At about a dozen places, insiders in the MCD said, the motor pumps for draining out water were found to be non-functional. At a few places in East Delhi, the MCD officers suddenly found that power connection to these pumps had been disconnected due to non-payment of bills.

It is only after the rains caused massive waterlogging problems that the matter was taken up with the Delhi Vidyut Board for restoring the electric connection on an emergency basis.

A senior MCD official conceded that the Department had been completely exposed by today's rain. It seems that no preparation has been made for the monsoons. At a number of places, drains started back-flowing as no desilting has been done. For the record, the MCD claimed this year they removed 5.5 lakh metric tonnes of silt as against 4.4 lakhs last year, but much below the target of 7.5 lakhs.

Worst hit were the resettlement colonies, slum clusters and old colonies where storm water drains were laid down several decades ago. Coupled with the waterlogging problem was the sudden non-availability of electricity due to a number of power-breakdowns all over the Capital.

Meanwhile, in many parts of the Capital there were reports of storm water mixing with the drinking water of the Delhi Jal Board. "The water is not only yellowish in colour, but also a lot of sand and other unwanted particles have got mixed with it,'' alleged Mohan Singh, a resident of Burari in North Delhi. The DVB officials said they were looking into the matter.

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