Nagpur: The September 23 deluge in Nagpur was man-made. The administration is wrongly terming it a consequence of a natural calamity. The city has no master plan for the drainage system, stated experts on Thursday.
On Thursday, flood-affected citizens had organized an open forum on the bank of Nag River with the administration to discuss the cause of the flood and deliberate future action. “Illegal commercial exploitation of public land caused the floods,” said town planner Pradyumna Sahasrabhojani while citing examples of the memorial at Ambazari Lake overflow point, Krazy Castle and skating rink.
Another town planner Paramjit Singh Ahuja said, “If administration had declared the flash flood man-made, officials would have to be held responsible, followed by inquiry and changing the compensation structure.”
According to Ahuja, lack of proper drainage plan, encroachments in low-lying areas are the main causes. “Catchment of Sonegaon lake and Pandhrabodi lake have been encroached,” he said.
Finding fault with the design of infrastructural projects, Ahuja stated that engineers of Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur Improvement Trust and even Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, which constructed Samruddhi Mahamarg, aren’t competent in this regard. “NMC engineers cannot even design a culvert. A project management consultant is appointed for every petty work,” he said.
Stressing the need to map city’s low-lying areas, floodplains, lakes, ponds, chronic flood spots etc, he demanded that no go zones be declared to prevent such man-made calamity in future.
According to Ahuja, this can be achieved if there is political will. He appealed to citizens to make efforts to form an expert committee to prepare a conservation plan. “Without involving the administration, such disaster cannot be prevented,” he said, adding city’s needs a short-term, mid-term and long-term drainage plan.
District Collector, Municipal Commissioner, and Chairman of the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT), were absent in the public meeting that was called by the flood-affected citizens to discuss the issues and demands with them on Thursday. The city fathers avoided facing the public in the programme on the flood issue.
In their absence, experts and urban planners of the city addressed the public and also urged them to come together to fight their own battle to make the city sustainable and flood-free in future. With the callous attitude of the administration in mind, the experts talked about the citizens’ responsibilities to avoid such a flood in future. Nagpur city witnessed heavy rainfall on September 23 due to which the Ambazari Lake overflowed.
Due to flooding in the Naag River, water-logging took place in residential areas of both sides of the river. Thousands of residents got affected due to the flooding but the administration failed to address the issues and pay compensation even after 25 days of the incident.
Subhash Deshpande, Retired Executive Director, Irrigation Department mentioned about the threat to Ambazari dam due to metro pillars. “Construction of metro pillars on the embankment of Ambazari Lake is a biggest threat to the water body. The administration has completely ignored the threat in the name of development. The embankment of the dam is bearing huge pressure and the vibrations due to the movement of the metro rail,” Deshpande said.
