August 5 gave a grave glimpse of how Guwahati is not at all prepared to fight the perennial flood issue. Drizzling rain which started at around 3:20 PM soon turned torrential and continued for the next 2-3 hours, ending up drowning most parts of the city.
By the time it was 7 PM, although the rain had stopped much earlier but the city couldn’t cope with the flood water which had taken over most parts of the city.
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Reports soon started to come in of people who have been stuck in traffic for over 7 – 8 hours because of the waterlogged streets and traffic. Social media was soon taken over by visuals of waist deep water filled streets of Guwahati.
People took videos and moved to flyover to stay out of the deluge. An aerial shot of people coming up the Shradhhanjali Flyover in Zoo Road is one that will be in our memory for a long long time. It almost looked similar to the Assam flood situations in Kaziranga when the animals would come up to the man-made highlands to save themselves from drowning.
The water level has risen so much and so fast that people were mostly fearful for their lives, especially after the Jyotinagar accident earlier last month. There was no difference between the footpath, drains and roads and with most of the drains uncovered there was a high chance of another accident to happen yesterday but fortunately nothing as such happened.
The flyovers in Guwahati which got the city a nickname of ‘City of Flyovers’ seem like the many highlands build in Kaziranga.
But why did such situation arise in Guwahati? That’s a question which is on everyone’s lips.
Many people on social media blamed it on flyovers, but it is not the only reason. Flyover construction in many areas of Guwahati has indeed created a low area which is now the first locations to get flooded with even a sprinkle. One example would be the Chandmari area. But it is also noteworthy that areas such as Zoo Road and Maligaon which never had waterlogging issues ever in their history are now one of the worst areas to get affected every time it rains in Guwahati.
Another and more important reason why Guwahati’s artificial flood has gone from bad to worse is its drainage system. Let’s face it! Guwahati doesn’t have a proper drainage system, forget about a storm drainage system.
It was only last year when the footpaths across the city was reconstructed, where the level of the footpaths were elevated. I don’t know if anyone paid attention during the time, but while construction, the bed of the drain upon which the footpath is made was turned concrete with sand, gravel and cement. This has made the entire footpath bed impervious.
For instance, three decades ago, Guwahati would have absorbed about half of its average rainfall but today, due to increased impervious surfaces, I assume only 20 percent is absorbed, leaving 80 percent as stormwater turning stagnant, which may be seen as one of the reasons for flooding. The construction was so haphazard that there is no drainage gradient in the footpath.
For people who don’t know, drainage gradient is a term in road design, defined as the combined slope due to road surface cross slope and longitudinal slope. This also can be applicable on footpath drainages.
Then there’s the silt that keeps accumulating in the Guwahati drains. Despite the Assam government spending huge money cleaning and de-silting the drains, the city could never do away with the flash floods.
We too have seen, the annual spring cleaning that Guwahati Municipal Corporation and Public Works Department carry out where the muck is brought out and kept by the roadside till it turns dry before being cleared out. But how is that there still remains enough silt to block whatever drainage we have. The most recent example being during the Jyotinagar accident where the administration pulled out muck from the drains even after claiming that they had indeed done a desiltation.
Something to ponder upon!
We also can’t completely turn blind eye to climate change. Rising rainfall intensity driven by climate change is rendering our current infrastructure insufficient. As rainstorms grow more intense, the existing drainage systems have been unable to cope, resulting in more frequent and severe flooding.
But this is only a small aspect of the Guwahati floods that paralysed the city on August 5.
Guwahati being situated between hills to the East, West, and South, might seem like nature’s ideal design for managing rainwater but the natural plan was that rain would naturally flow into local water bodies and the three river systems—Bharalu, Bahini, and Basistha—before heading out to Brahmaputra.
But here’s the kicker - our drainage system is like a leaky bucket in a downpour. For the past 20 years, Guwahati has been repeatedly drenched by urban floods, all thanks to a drainage setup that’s as unorganised as it can get.
Surprisingly, the authorities still haven’t put together a master plan for managing our stormwater. Before diving into any fancy “smart” city projects, it’s high time they got serious about fixing our stormwater drainage and underground sewage systems. After all, you can’t have a “smart” city if you’re constantly treading water!
