The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Bureaucracy oblivious to ‘urban flooding’ News Analysis

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Monday, Aug 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Bureaucracy oblivious to ‘urban flooding’ News Analysis

K. Srinivas Reddy

HYDERABAD: As the heavily overcast skies opened up over the State capital on Saturday and brought the normal life to a standstill, one thing that became clear was that the city administration was totally unprepared for handling a near-disaster situation that was unfolding.

The immediate response to Saturday’s downpour was to set up emergency control rooms and plan relief measures. By evening an advisory was issued to people living along the sides of open drains to evacuate. However, by the time the officials reacted, much of the damage was already done. And that brings into sharp focus a singular issue – why could not the administration initiate any precautionary measures, despite knowing that there would be heavy rainfall.

It was indeed bureaucracy at work. Reactive rather than proactive. But proactivity could be achieved when there are systems in place to tackle situations like the one on Saturday.

Hyderabad had already provided the best example of urban flooding before Mumbai floods, when it received torrential rains in August 2000. Mumbai floods in 2005 were more serious, but Mumbai showed the way by preparing a Disaster Management Programme (DMP). But Hyderabad does not have any such programme, an imperative document for any metropolitan city.

While successive administrators and elected representatives conveniently forgot the need to draft such a plan, Mumbai showed the way.

It was not just drafting a DMP. Mumbai had also installed an extensive and most sophisticated rain gauge system (35 gauges) which automatically update the control room about the rainfall being recorded every 15 minutes. Using the DMP, authorities decide on the proactive measures to be taken up as they would have at least five hours lead time enabling them to issue advisories on areas likely to be inundated, power supply disruptions, traffic disruptions, and evacuations could be taken up, if necessary.

Bureaucracy in the State capital, however, would depend more on the visual observation of the rainfall, as it appears to be totally oblivious to the dangers of ‘urban flooding’, caused by rainfall overwhelming the existing drainage capacity. If the drain system in Hyderabad is capable of handling some 25 mm of rainfall in an hour, an intense rain like a 20 cm rain in a day would naturally lead to flooding.

Another thing that directly contributes to intense urban flooding is the factor of construction. Concrete pavements, buildings and improperly planned road dividers produce a multiple effect, as the city planners do not seem to take into account the factors of increasing intense rains due to urban heat island effect and the resultant flooding. The road dividers constructed on several thoroughfares in Hyderabad are the best examples of ill planning. While they indeed serve the purpose of aesthetics and bring some semblance in movement of traffic, a one-hour rain lead to heavy water logging on those roads, because the dividers obstruct the natural flow of rain water. That’s the precise reason why authorities had to move in heavy duty poclains to break the dividers at several places to allow water to flow. At best, this can be a knee jerk reaction to an emerging situation, but not a solution.

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