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‘Radical surgery needed to prevent Pune drowning’
According to Sarang Yadvadkar Pune-based civic and environment activist, PMC has submitted a report on the areas the requires work, to avoid flood-like situations in the city, but nothing is being implemented
Flood lines have been incorrectly marked on the city’s development plan (DP). The state and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have submitted a report on the areas the requires work, to avoid flood-like situations in the city, but nothing is being implemented,” said Sarang Yadvadkar Pune-based civic and environment activist.
He was speaking at the panel discussion on “Is flooding in Pune a man-made disaster?” organised by RTI Katta and Moneylife Foundation on the occasion of 300th RTI Katta on Sunday at Elysium hall on Ghole road.
The discussion was moderated by Vinita Deshmukh, senior journalist and RTI activist.
Along with Yadvadkar, Vijay Kumbhar, RTI activist; Vinod Bodhankar, joint coordinator of Sagarmitra NGO and Abhijit Ghorpade, environment activist were speakers at the panel discussion.
“Radical surgery is required to change Pune’s current condition before it deteriorates. The city is surrounded by dams, however, water supply is not managed properly. If we continue to live in this flood like situation, forget Pune Smart city, whether we will survive or not is the question. Not only administration and politicians, but we as citizens are also responsible. Activists do not receive much support from the public over such sensitive issues,” added Yadvadkar.
Abhijit Ghorpade said, “There are two types of floods. One that happens due to heavy rains, when dams started filling slowly and the other is flash floods which occurs suddenly. Incidents of flash floods will now increase with the speed at which climate change is affecting us. We cannot control these situations, however, we need to think about how to be prepared for such incidents.”
Vinod Bodhankar said, “We need to look at the problems with long term solutions and not quick fixes. Many small plastic dams have come up in Ambil odha (stream) as it creates obstacles to flow of water. Plastic is the main reason Pune’s drains are chocked. In Mutha river there used to be 70 types of fishes 20 years back, now one can find only two species. We currently have 2,000 volunteers who are working to collect plastic. So we need to connect to more and more people to change the situation around us.”
