TenaCITY

Sixteen people died in the stampede. While the state machinery stayed unhurried about dismissing the rumours.

ON Tuesday, July 26, as Mumbai received a record 944 mm of rainfall, that communication from government agencies was completely absent. So, as Torrential Tuesday progressed, actor Sameera Reddy found herself stranded in a car for six hours on her way to the airport. Television star Rakshanda Khan left a shoot at 3.00 pm, got home at 10.30 am the following day and found her plush suburban apartment flooded.

A low-lying colony of Air India staffers was inundated up to the first-floor level, drain water backed up into plush Juhu homes as it did in thousands of shanties. Tens of thousands of commuters were stranded as all three suburban and outstation railway lines ground to a halt on submerged tracks, others waded through four to six feet of water on the highways and electricity failed in several suburbs along with telephone and cellphone networks.

‘‘And we had no intimation whatsoever about the extent of the calamity,’’ says T. Chandrashekhar, a widely respected bureaucrat who’s now joint commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), currently implementing multi-crore infrastructure projects.

Chandrashekhar made repeated calls to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC’s) disaster management control rooms, reporting and seeking information. ‘‘The BMC disaster cell is supposed to alert every department as well as the public,’’ he says. ‘‘Preventing a disaster is impossible, but losses could have been minimised.’’

Fix this first
THAT was Failure No 1 to be fixed urgently — nobody was warned through television, radio and public announcement systems, commuters not asked to stay where they are, motorists not cautioned against venturing out, nobody evacuated from chronic flood spots or hillslopes. All of these are essentials according to the state’s lofty disaster management plan.

‘‘After the tsunami, there’s been talk about a detailed disaster management plan, but nothing concrete has come of it,’’ says Narinder Nayar, industrialist and chairman of lobby group Bombay First. Nayar’s been stranded in Rome for five days after flights to Mumbai were cancelled.

The plan involves working in tandem with search and rescue teams, the fire brigade, the police, the traffic police and local civic ward offices, besides keeping citizens informed of the best options. The last effort was entirely missing.

The dark signal of the collapse of communication continued through Thursday and Friday, as high-strung citizens called helplines, enquiring about impending cyclones, tsunamis and dam bursts. Again, in a delayed response, Police Commissioner A.N. Roy was the only senior official appearing on television to assuage fears.

Drain it out
AS far as the civic administration and the chief minister are concerned, 944 mm is simply too much rain in one day for a coastal city’s drainage system to bother being prepared for. There’s no denying that — such abnormal torrents will inevitably cause grave waterlogging.

But why did water not recede, for nearly 48 hours in some areas?

Indiscriminate construction is obstructing the natural flow of water to the sea, say environmentalists. ‘‘The flowing out of the Mithi river has been impeded,’’ offers environmental activist and author Darryl D’Monte, as one example of excessive land reclamation. The river, winding through various suburbs before emptying at Bandra, is the city’s biggest storm water drain.

‘‘Also, the sewage disposal outfall at Bandra and the Bandra Worli Sealink have involved reclamation without proper hydrological studies on how they would affect the flow of water,’’ D’Monte says.

THERE’S also a dusty survey report of the city’s storm water drains, chalked out in 1993 by foreign consultancy Metcalfe & Eddy for the BMC. It has been all but forgotten, save for periodic mentions in various environmental reports.

Its implementation cost — it includes details on which spots need underground pumping stations to flush out flood water, where drains have to be simply widened/deepened and where obstructions on drains have to be removed — has meanwhile ballooned from Rs 600 crore to Rs 1,500 crore.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Environment and Waste Management) Prakash Sanglikar says the report is being gradually implemented, with modifications wherever necessary. ‘‘Definitely, water has to be given proper way for its own discharge,’’ he agrees.

Road to normality
SEVENTEEN arterial roads under the MMRDA are expected to be worst hit, since they are under-construction projects brought only to a ‘‘safe level’’ for the monsoon. The MMRDA is still assessing and quantifying the damage, but the asphalting treatment on all roads — the seal and final treatment was still pending — has been affected badly.

Also, paver blocks or interlocking tiles have taken a beating, besides the massive craters on various key routes.

BMC is to embark on a Rs 350-crore roads improvement venture post-monsoon. It may now have to widen its scope to other roads rendered unmotorable.

The bigger ideas
MEMBER of Parliament from South Mumbai Milind Deora says the private sector should be involved in the relief work. In fact, the first appointment Nayar will chalk into his schedule when he returns is a meeting of the Bombay First trustees.

But he says the corporate sector can assist only up to a point — ‘‘Help with relief efforts, offer health services and perhaps aid infrasructure rebuilding.’’

Deora is also keen that a concrete plan be prepared for tackling health issues and averting possible epidemics. ‘‘I’ve suggested we have a review meeting with the chief secretary, the municipal commissioner and top civic officials,’’ he says.

Also on the fix-it list

Sewage: Pumping stations under water in the western suburbs are a dire warning, sewage will begin backing up toilets if they’re not repaired immediately.

Food and supplies: The black market is booming, even in candles in areas reeling under electricity blackouts. Sugar, vegetables, milk and grain prices are rising too, with warnings of shortages. The supply chain must be restored immediately.

Averting epidemics: Worries of leptospirosis, gastroenteritis and malaria outbreaks are compounded in post-944 mm Mumbai. With over 2,000 dead buffaloes in only one suburb —

and no real plan to deal with the carcasses in a scientific manner — epidemics are a real and present danger.

Trains: They’re inching back to normal, but abandoned rakes and damaged tracks are still being assessed and repaired.