Events & Issues

New Delhi, 16 December 2015

Chennai Floods

LESSONS FOR ‘SMART’ CITIES

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Chennai is limping back to life after harrowing days of unprecedented flooding. While many have become homeless, others, like this writer, who were in safer areas, went without power, water, internet, phone network for harrowing three days and 66 hours.

The officials at the India Meteorological Department have stated that the exceptionally strong El Niño, along with a rare “coincidence of various factors”, has resulted in the heavy rains in Chennai. The citizens, however, are of the firm view calling it a manmade disaster that could have been handled had there been a better urban planning in place. Indeed, there is no denying that the capital of Tamil Nadu has failed in maintaining an effective storm water drainage system which is the main reason for the inundation of the city.

When the city and its suburbs were being pounded with rainfall exceeding normal limits by over three times, the drainage system wasn’t functional and creeks and culverts were blocked due to excessive dumping of garbage. Worse, the State administration’s failure to ensure timely de-silting added to the woes. Thus the monsoon played merry havoc in the southern metropolis.

The heaviest rainfall in over a century caused massive flooding across Tamil Nadu, driving thousands from their homes, shutting auto factories and paralysing life in Chennai. Water bodies such as the Cooum River, Adyar River and Buckingham Canal, which serve as the main rain water drain for the city, have all seen human encroachments over the years mainly due the scanty rains the city receives.

This year, the Madras High Court threatened to summon the State Chief Secretary over differences in opinion between the AIADMK Government’s own departments over encroachment issues on the water bodies. A PIL was filed seeking the removal of encroachments on the Canal Bank Road along the Buckingham Canal. In their petition, they said the encroachments were not slum dwellings but concrete structures directly affecting the flow of the canal. Had the government acted then, perhaps this area of the city would not have faced such severe flooding.

Chennai recorded a whopping 1218.6 mm of rain – three times its monthly rainfall in November. The normal rainfall figures for November stand at 407.4 mm. On the first day of December itself, Chennai recorded 374 mm and this added up for the next six days of the week which saw heavy rainfall.

Given the severity of the floods, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Chennai to see the damage caused. Following the review, he instructed the immediate release Rs 1,000 crore for relief and rescue operations. This was over and above the Rs 940 crore released earlier by the Union government. In addition, the Central government declared the Tamil Nadu floods as a Calamity of Severe Nature. This came after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa made repeated pleas seeking to Modi seeking that the floods be declared as National Disaster.

Under this declaration, the Parliamentarians are advised to spend up to Rs 1 crore under their MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for reconstruction and rehabilitation works in the in flood-affected districts. The members of Parliament can now send approval letters to the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It remains to be seen what recommendations are sent for approval.

In the meantime, full kudos to the three Armed Services’ personnel. In terms of rescue and relief operations, the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force operated out of Chennai, helping authorities in their efforts. The Navy rushed its warship INS Airavat to Chennai, wherein it carried 20 divers, and five Gemini boats in addition to four landing craft and two boats that are part of the ship. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) with 30 teams and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) pulled in all their resources to help those stranded.

Besides, the government machinery, the NGOs and collectives came out in large numbers, providing shelter, basic necessities as well as offering manpower in rescue operations. A website called, ‘chennairains.org,’ is working as a resource centre and assisting those in need of help. In addition, cellular operators, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodanfone, RCom, Aircel and Zomato have come to the rescue, waiving rates and offering free services to their customers.  Several IT Parks, begun operating as shelters to those rendered homeless.

Chennai has over 165 BSE-listed companies with an aggregate market capitalisation of over Rs 285,000 crore. The floods have badly derailed the business activity in the city as companies stopped their production activity and shut down offices. The well-established presence of the automobile industry around the city include factories of Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Nissan, TVS, Renault-Nissan and Ashok Leyland, most of which were forced to shut production. TVS Motor Company, which is based in Chennai, had reported that the company suffered sales loss of approximately 15,000 units due to inclement weather.

According to Assocham, “the financial loss due to record-breaking rainfall in Chennai and several parts of Tamil Nadu may have exceeded Rs 15,000 crore marks. Moreover, insurance claims for damage to property, automobiles and other goods following the devastating floods in Tamil Nadu could rise to well over Rs 1,000 crore, an estimate of the general insurance companies.

The first step after the rescue and relief operations, which are now complete, is to set up a task force that reviews all on-going construction activity in the city and its suburbs. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority must review permissions that have been granted given that it operates as the green channel for commercial constructions in the city and it reviews plans in accordance with the city’s master development plan.

A relook at the land-use in the master plan should also be among the top priorities of the AIADMK government. According to a report submitted by CMDA to the Madras High Court, is that there are over 1.5 lakh illegal structures in the city.  In fact, illegal construction across Chennai has been making neighbourhoods unrecognisable — what may have been a tank, lake, canal or river 20 years ago, is today the site of multi-storey residential and industrial structures.

The government has grand designs to build 100 futuristic ‘smart’ cities in India, but as devastating flooding in Chennai shows, fixing today’s accident-prone metropolises appears to be the more pressing task. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)