Bharuch needs 100-year plan to counter floods

BHARUCH: The worst-ever flood in Bharuch in the past 15 years has once again reminded legislators and urban planners that the town infrastructure is in need of a complete revamp. The recent spell of rain - 27.5 inches in just three days - left large parts of the town submerged under water. In fact, the town's infrastructure is in such poor condition that it doesn't need much rain to flood many localities of the town.
Jivraj Patel, structural engineer and campus director of Sad Vidya Mandal Institute of Technology, said that when the Sardar Sarovar dam height reached 121.92 metres, it was said that Bharuch will never be flooded again. "But nature has proved that a river cannot be artificially controlled by such dams. Bharuch has witnessed several calamities in 1960, 1968, 1970, 1977 and so on. Now it is time to give the town a 100-year plan because short-term plans are nothing but waste of funds," Patel said.
In the recent floods, several villages of Bharuch district were also flooded for many days and thousands had to be evacuated.
The challenge before the administration is to prepare a long-term action plan, demarcating areas likely to be worst-affected and those which are relatively safer because of better planned infrastructure with strict norms and guidelines for construction.
Former urban development minister Khumansinh Vansia said that as Bharuch is surrounded by industries, it needs a special development package to create infrastructure that can meet all kinds of natural or man-made calamities.
Lack of underground drainage in Bharuch town is one of the major problems here.
Everywhere in the town, domestic liquid waste from tanks are released on roads. Even after the rains abated, Bharuch municipality has failed to clear water-logging at Bharuch Kasak garnala, the main entry point of the town which is continuously flooded with contaminated water.