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Both
sides of the celebrated S G Highway turn into enormous water
bodies dotted by marooned residents during the monsoon. The
phenomenon is a novelty as western Ahmedabad was not ever
flooded, once upon a time. It is so now. And it is on the basis
of Ahmedabad’s experience that one is tempted to draw the
conclusion: that these floods are more man made than Nature’s,
as the quantum of the downpour has not really increased to
justify the extent of the flooding.
That part of the city has seen unprecedented rush of
construction of high and low rise buildings, bungalows, row
houses etc accompanying the residential edifices are
complementary commercial ones, shopping plazas, multiplexes,
plus of course, the concomitant quota of paved roads.
While
planning the main and arterial roads, how much attention is ever
paid to the natural flow of water and extra efforts made to
ensure that those natural passages are not blocked? Who ever
thought of that?
So it
comes about that the natural flow of the monsoon downpours no
longer have their traditional outlets. Fields have been given
over to concrete mazes, water bodies filled over and even where
there is a natural flow, its path is interrupted by pucca
roads: spanking new highways and autobahns which are the pride
of the place.
Nobody links them to the overflowing of the canals which are
themselves broken down cesspools plugged with garbage and waste,
quite incapable of containing their own natural inflow, leave
alone the extras generated by the highways closing off other
flows.
Now
if this can cause major havoc in a city like Ahmedabad, why not
in metropolis like Mumbai and Chennai?
In
both these cities, the pace of construction is much more
frenzied and extensive. Chennai is a growing industrial hub that
requires not that much more housing for its extensive work
force. And the demands of modern work forces also include
‘necessities’ such as cultural centers, clubs, shopping malls,
go-karting and bowling alleys etc. all of which make for solid
concretized grounds which do not allow for the soaking in of
rain waters in substantial enough quantum to prevent flooding
out; while the roads and highways come in the way of the natural
flows.
Mumbai has been expanding at a frenetic pace, its saltpans and
marshlands swallowed up in construction accompanied by access
roads and all the modern wizardry of communications.
Ditto Chennai
that is set to become a leader amongst the developed and industrialized
states of India. The country needs to move ahead. Which means coping
with the problems which crop up in the steady march towards
‘development’.
So perhaps the way out would have to be a dramatic upsurge in drainage
facilities design to cope with the sheet flows of the monsoon and cyclic
storms. |
How
Ancient India Coped?
The
wisdom of our hoary traditions was the conservation of sheet
flows of rainwater in any and every way possible. Way back in
the sixteenth century, India harnessed upto 60% of its
precipitation, despite the fact that most of the annual rains
came in bursts. These have been variously estimated at an
average of 300 hours or twelve and half days in a year.
Of
the 300 hours, half comes in less than 30 hours. In places like
Jaisalmer, Bangalore or Bombay, 100 cms of rain come within 30
hours, spread over a rainy season of 100 days.
The
genius of Ancient India dictated that water be stored wherever
it rained, ‚ i.e. in hundreds of thousands of reservoirs, all
over the countryside, known by different names in different
parts of the country.
The
sheer variety of names given to the water storage units reveals
how widespread the practice was throughout the different parts
of the country:
The
eri, the kulam, the jheel, the sagar,
the johard, the talab, the sar, the nadi,
the khadin, the kund, the kunta, the
katta, the pukur, the bandh, the ahar,
even irrigated fields such as paddy, surrounded by bunds, which
allowed percolation, built up soil moisture, reduced soil/land
erosion and maintained atmospheric humidity.
Besides, there were also sub-surface tanks, deep step-wells in
the urban areas and roof water harvesting, in which rain water
was piped down to basement reservoirs or sub-surface tanks, to
provide drinking water throughout the year ... the modern day
version of which may just be the new found interest in
percolation wells in commercial complexes and public places like
gardens.
In ancient India, anyone could build a water body, from a king
to a philanthropist to the community prostitute. Employment was
generated, a community asset built with tremendous economic and
social spin-offs. |
