CMC to HC: Topography to blame for waterlogging

CUTTACK: Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) on Wednesday informed the Orissa high court that even if pumps run at full capacity, it won’t be able to prevent 2-5 hours of waterlogging in certain parts of the city because of the low-lying topography of these areas.

A special bench constituted to look into civic problems in Cuttack was taking stock of the CMC’s contingency plan to prevent possible waterlogging in the city during monsoon.

Taking into account the affidavit filed by CMC’s city engineer Atanu Kumar Samanta, the special bench of Justice S K Sahoo and Justice V Narasingh said, “The CMC shall file an affidavit stating the identified areas where such waterlogging is taking place and the remedial measures being taken.” The bench posted the matter to July 27 for further consideration.

In the affidavit the CMC stated, “As per topography, Cuttack is situated in between and below the river-bed level of the Mahanadi and Kathajodi. Hence, in certain low-lying areas of the city, as the water from the drains itself takes some time to discharge into the larger water bodies, dewatering from the drains takes up to two to three hours. Similarly, in some other vulnerable locations it takes up to five hours for complete drainage of rainwater.”

Hence, even if the pumps run at full capacity, water level will not go down immediately until the drains have discharged their water, the affidavit stated. “It will take two to three hours in some and about four to five hours in other low-lying locations for the water level to go down after the rain has stopped,” the affidavit mentioned, adding, “In all other locations, accumulated rainwater is cleared immediately after stoppage of rain.”

During the course of hearing on Wednesday, the court was also informed that control room numbers have been provided to enable the authorities to respond to the waterlogging with urgency.

Taking note of it, the special bench directed that “a responsible officer shall be kept in charge of such control room/call centre and the record shall be maintained as to the number of calls received and redressed by taking necessary measures.”

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