Mumbai rains: BMC’s woes at home, Guard rooms flooded for three days

“There is ankle-deep water on the floor and we have to stand on the tables and change our clothes twice a day. One of us has already slipped and fallen. Even though this has become an annual phenomenon now, no one takes any action."

Written by Arita Sarkar

Mumbai | August 30, 2017 02:37 AM IST

2 min read

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EVEN as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation raced to attend to various rain-related complaints from residents, the municipality experienced waterlogging troubles at its own headquarters building in south Mumbai. Several staff members of the BMC’s security team complained that the two changing rooms as well as a room where old legal documents have been stored have been flooded for the past three days.

One security personnel said that despite several complaints, the civic administration has failed to address the problem. “There is ankle-deep water on the floor and we have to stand on the tables and change our clothes twice a day. One of us has already slipped and fallen. Even though this has become an annual phenomenon now, no one takes any action,” he said.

The security officer added that he and his colleagues have lined up ladders, tables and chairs so that people wouldn’t have to step on the water. Another officer claimed that the water was from an old sewage pipe that overflows on days of heavy rain. Barring the three guard rooms, a steady trickle of water due to the continuous heavy rainfall could also been seen in some sections of the heritage building.

The situation was worse for the female police personnel as the stagnant water has now started emanating a foul stench. “We are unable to even stand in the room for more than a few minutes as the smell is so bad. But we have to leave our belongings in there. We have now started using other rooms in the buildings since some of us have to drape our sarees as well,” she said.

Officials, however, stated that they were not aware of the situation and have now started rectifying the situation. “We have inspected the rooms and the water is coming from seepage in the walls. We have installed a submersible dewatering pump and are removing the water from the rooms,” said Sanjay Sawant, the maintenance and heritage department engineer.

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