Come Monsoons & Delhi’s Drainage System Falls Apart
Said A Resident of Maharani Bagh, “We Don’t Look Forward to the Rains Anymore!”
Early this month when heavy rains pounded the city, not surprising (the Capital City of India) – Delhi’s drainage system fell apart. This has become an annual torture now; no one looks forward to the rains, anymore.
However, this year it became starkly visible for the entire world to see that there is no space left for the surface- run- off rainwater to enter the river Yamuna, that has been a natural drain-off area for this habitation from time immemorial. The Raisina Hills natural flow was towards the Yamuna.
The river flood plains have been occupied by illegal shanty settlements, (some of these of the rag-pickers), not only are these choking the drains with plastic and other garbage, but mountain -high heaps of filth on either side of the once-upon-a-drain are spread out, as far as the eye could reach.
Among the worst hit area from the floods was this neighbourhood of NFC, Maharani Bagh and Friends Colony. Perhaps, there was hardly any home that was not affected by the recent man-made floods that had turned motorable roads into rivers.
Several homes had sewage water gushing in from the front of the house as well as from the service lane; drawing room carpets were ruined, the sofa- sets were rolling in two feet water, the dining chairs were upturned on the table, beds were sitting in dirty gutter water as the back flow too started. Worst sufferers were those living in old family houses whose toilets were choked with gutter water. Over the past 65-years or so, the road repair work raised the carpeted surface higher and higher, thus, the driveways and the entrance to the house became lower to the road! Nearly all basements in this neighbourhood were flooded. Peoples’ books were destroyed apart from several personal belongings.
Said a resident of Maharani Bagh, “we don’t look forward to the rains anymore. In fact, the rains make me nervous and stressed out.” It was Maharani Bagh residents who pressurised the local MLA to clean out the rain-water drains going towards Taimoor Nagar nalluh and beyond with JCBs. Cleaning this stretch apart, the outlet to the Yamuna is now no more than a narrow strip that meanders through the Basti, with encroachments all over the original passage. People are demanding complete clearance of the passage downstream. It is not that the local government wasn’t warned. For several months now RWAs had been pleading to the local MLA to get the drains cleaned but with little results.
After the horse has bolted, some cleaning is now taking place. However, the dredged-out garbage is piled on the embankment on either side, ready to slide in again with the next heavy downpour. “This effort is only piecemeal, it’s an eyewash. Not good enough. This time the local government must demolish some illegal homes to give enough area for the gushing waters from Delhi to flow out of residential areas,” said an angry resident who insists that someone higher up has to monitor the multiple agencies running Delhi.
Also, there is urgent need to look into ‘compensatory’ records. Many of those occupying the flood plains were allotted alternative accommodation, they took ownership of it only to sell it, pocket the money and return to the Yamuna bed once more, knowing fully well, the MLA one of their own, will protect them as he needs to win the elections.
Is this the price for democracy? The illegal settlements are more important as votes than a basic standard of life in Delhi! The political rulers, the executive and the judiciary must remove the settlements. It’s the living conditions in the entire Delhi at stake. The residents have had enough, they are on a warpath, and this time around it is a fight to the finish.
