Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India's Urban Floods Are More Acts Of Man Than God -VR Vachana

India's Urban Floods Are More Acts Of Man Than God -VR Vachana

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Sep 4, 2017   modified Modified on Sep 4, 2017
-Huffington Post blog

A result of dysfunctional municipal planning and governance.

The flooding woes of Indian cities have hit the headlines yet again, with Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Agartala being among the worst affected. As for the response to these crises—there is enough evidence to indicate that the patchwork solutions that have been employed will work like steroid shots that might mitigate the issue temporarily, but worsen it in the future.

Planning in tatters

The fundamental issue behind recurrent urban flooding can be traced to the lack of a comprehensive masterplan that is properly implemented and enforced. According to the Green Economy report (UNEP, 2011), poor urban planning can cost a country 3% of its GDP. It is a known fact that the planning process in Indian cities is flawed at various levels. Chandigarh, often touted as our best planned city, was intended to house half a million people but now bears the load of over 1.5 million residents, clearly overwhelming its governance and infrastructure capacity .

Unmanaged urban sprawl is a clear indication of failure to accommodate the actual pace of a city's growth, placing undue stress on land. And, with the absence of mechanisms for plan implementation and enforcement, cities end up with encroachments and violations that block natural drainage systems, resulting in urban flooding. The Annual Survey of India's City-Systems (ASICS) 2016, an urban governance benchmarking study across 21 major Indian cities showed that 14 Indian cities scored zero on a scale of 10 in their ability to successfully implement plans while the remaining seven cities scored a meagre 0.9. The study also showed that no cities have an effective mechanisms to deter plan violations.

Not surprisingly, the Union Minister for Transport, Nitin Gadkari, recently described the Town Planning Department in Maharashtra as "hopeless" and "good for nothing", emphasising the need for agencies to chalk out plans in tandem with the city's growth patterns.

Indian cities do not aim for equity and resilience. Inequitable planning results in a divided city – where areas facing minimal flooding end up well-planned and serviced, while vulnerable areas that are low-lying and comprised of informal settlements are left out. Furthermore, they are not equipped with robust indicators to measure success and failure of plans. This can be further attributed to the fact that India has a dearth of town planners, sectoral planners and plan enforcement staff. According to UN-Habitat (as cited in the ASICS report), India has only one planner per 4,00,000 population in comparison to the UK, which has 148 planners for the same strength of people.

Robust planning and design standards would also help implement scientific design of drains, separation between sewage and storm water and adequate capacities of storm water drains. No city in India has adopted a design standard for drainage systems. Most cities also lack adequate drainage coverage. For example, Chennai has 855km of storm water drains against 2,847 km of roads, resulting in floods after minimally heavy rain. In Mumbai, storm drains receive almost 40% of sewage from the city either by direct discharge/overflow from sewers or by drainage across the ground, leading to reduction in its capacity to drain rainwater.

Please click here to read more.

Huffington Post, 1 September, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.in/v-r-vachana/india-s-urban-floods-are-more-acts-of-man-than-god_a_23191850/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close