Pre-Monsoon Mayhem is Sign Of What Lies Ahead

HYDERABAAD: The civic machinery in Hyderabad is going into yet another monsoon test underprepared. That’s what experts feel about the monsoon action plan or lack of it of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Even after last year’s deluge, GHMC doesn’t seem to have learnt its lessons. So will it be a repeat of last year? Will monsoon fury again paralyse the city? Will heavy rain flood roads and dent the city’s image? These, and more such questions, plague residents as they are perturbed by the very thought of having to battle against familiar foes this monsoon too.
Their fears are compounded by predictions of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) of rains over southern peninsula being in excess of three percent — 99% —as against the historical average of 96%. M Shashidhar Reddy, former vice-chairperson of National Disaster Management Authority, said the plan laid out by GHMC only spells out what it would do during flashfloods. “The city needs a plan to mitigate such disasters, not wait for them to happen and then jump into action,” he said. Though official sources from GHMC said that they had completed pre-monsoon works assigned to them, residents were not ready to buy this theory.
BT Srinivasan, a resident of Tarnaka, lambasted the GHMC, saying it was only fit for making tall claims, even as the ground reality hasn’t changed at all over the years. “After the mayhem last monsoon, GHMC assured residents that it would make sure the city was not inundated in future. But the pre-monsoon showers were enough to drown its tall claims.
Those showers were enough to buckle the city’s infrastructure,” he said. However, amid all this, GHMC seemed nonchalant about the travails of residents. “Once monsoon starts, we will have our teams on standby and they will follow up with complaints given by people,” was all a GHMC official had to say. “Everything that they have announced is only on paper. During last month’s pre-monsoon showers, the entry roads to our colony were completely submerged.
Now, they are full of pockmarks and the craters are sure to open up with the onset of rains, causing accidents,” said Venkatram Reddy, aresident of Netaji Nagar. Experts say had GHMC followed recommendations of the Kirloskar committee, the city would have been in a better shape. The report stated that existing storm water drains were constructed during the Nizam era for a population of five lakh and municipal area of 54sq km. But today, GHMC encompasses an area of 625sq km and apopulation of almost 80 lakh.