After the 5th August deluge which brought the city to a standstill, a very unusual debate has been sparked -- kola (black) or ronga (red). The day after, the state Housing and Urban Affairs minister, who also heads the Mission Guwahati Flood Free committee, Ashok Singhal, claimed that much of the flood water, which submerged many parts of the city, came from the Meghalaya hills since it was red. On the other hand, the water that comes out of drains in the city is clack. As soon as he made the comments, social media flooded with pictures of waterlogged roads and black-and-red remarks.
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The debate may seem humorous, but the concern is serious as the city of Guwahati is witnessing waterlogging in places where usually the issue did not exist. The chief minister even posted a time lapse of Google images showing how the area around University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) underwent deforestation and hill cutting in the past years which according to him caused floods in Guwahati. Well, it is true that deforestation and hill cutting in nearby areas causes floods in the city, but most of the hill cutting is also done for the developmental work in the city.
People of Guwahati were happy with the National Highway Authority of India’s (NHAI) project of giving a facelift to National Highway 27 (old NH 37) stretching from Khanapara to Jalukbari. The highway stretch till last year witnessed huge and rapid construction. The stretch has been widened from a four-lane to a six-lane highway with four flyovers and one vehicular underpass (VUP). Unlike the flyovers in Guwahati city, which are viaducts in nature, and space below the arches is used for car parking, the four flyovers and the VUP on the Khanapara – Jalukbari stretch are earth-filled. During the construction hundreds of dumper trucks every night ferried huge quantities of soil for the construction of the flyovers. More than 9 lakh cubic meters of soil was required for the completion of the entire project. Around 1.5 lakh cubic meters of soil was required for the construction of each flyover. The red soil used for the construction was mostly procured from the hills of Meghalaya. The entire Pilinkata hills were cut and the cutting has been ongoing for many years. Why did not the Assam government raise questions when the earth cutting started there?
Guwahati does not have a proper drainage master plan and it is unknown which drain is connecting which wetland. Without a proper drainage system the rain water – ronga or kola - will continue to submerge the roads. The hill cutting is banned during monsoon in Guwahati, but is it 100% enforced?. There are many hills where earth cutting is ongoing even now and not only in Meghalaya but also in Guwahati. Many drains and rivers in Guwahati are encroached causing urban flooding. Garbage is still thrown in drains and rivers and the public is not barred from doing it. Public has an excuse that door-to-door garbage collection is not regular.
Ronga versus kola water is a new issue, but the other existing issues, which are long unresolved, question the capability of the authorities to make Guwahati flood-free.
