Reasons why city floods every monsoon

Sewa Ram, an urban transport systems design expert and a faculty member at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), said that the existing civic plans have been designed to deal with a “crisis” rather than finding a “solution”.

Experts blamed the lack of advanced planning, concretization of Badshahpur drain and a misdirected approach towards solving the problem as the reasons for waterlogging becoming an inherent issue. According to them, the city pays for the short-sightedness of its makers every time it rains.

Experts blamed the lack of advanced planning, concretization of Badshahpur drain and a misdirected approach towards solving the problem as the reasons for waterlogging becoming an inherent issue. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

As per environmentalist Vaishali Rana Chandra the main reason for urban flooding was concertisation of Badshahpur drain which is the “main stormwater drain in the city, and all master and arterial drains, and tributaries flow into it,” she said.

“As per the 1983 Gurugram gazetteer, 45 metres was the width of the Badshahpur drain. Today this 28 kilometre drain has reduced to 8-10 metres at certain points, which is heavily compromising its drainage capacity leading to urban flooding. Another problem is that authorities are concertising the drain which is not allowing the rainwater to seep into the ground. With no outlet for stormwater drains, rainwater is overflowing on to the roads,” Chandra said.

Sewa Ram, an urban transport systems design expert and a faculty member at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), said that the existing civic plans have been designed to deal with a “crisis” rather than finding a “solution”.

“Authorities have only prepared for disaster management instead of mapping areas depending on the severity of the waterlogging. They need to localise the problem, and identify remedial measures for each one of them individually. It is only when a study is carried out, the flow of rainwater can be ascertained, which will help authorities to place embankments, drains, check-dams accordingly,” Sewa Ram said.

According to a retired IAS officer of the Haryana cadre, who had once served as the MCG chief, waterlogging was the result of the way the city was developed—without any long-term vision.

“Gurugram has been developed in patches by builders. By the time civic authorities finally stepped in, it was too late. There were no records of storm water drains, and in the late 2000s everything had to be identified from scratch,” the officer said requesting anonymity.

He said another problem was that the city did not have a civic body, such as GMDA in existence, which could develop a master plan for it.

“Without any long-term vision for the city, drainage was never a priority for the state. Most funds used to be rerouted from Gurugram to other parts of Haryana, which has left the city in complete civic disarray,” the officer added.