GDD Minister Himanta in people’s court

Staff reporter
GUWAHATI, June 3 – An ill-prepared Guwahati city welcomed the onset of the monsoons season with water and silt on the roads, overflowing drains and traffic snarls due to waterlogging.

Heavy downpours for several hours in the early morning today, resulted in flash flood in several areas and many arterial roads of the city, restricting the movement of commuters – most of them being the office and school goers.

Meanwhile, at a meeting called by the GDD Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the instruction of the Gauhati High Court to listen to the citizens’ grievances related to civic problems, the Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) today suggested that a monitoring cell should be set up to monitor flash-flood situation at least during rainy season. “We asked the State government to take bold steps to remove encroachments from the marshy lands and natural water canals and ensure regular cleaning of the drains,” said SGBG president Dhiren Baruah. The NGO also demanded that a person who knows Guwahati city thoroughly should be appointed as the GMC commissioner.

Meanwhile, for the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) workers, it became an arduous task to clear the mud from the arterial roads ofthe city, despite an additional force of 150 workers being deployed specially for the monsoons.

Areas like Chandmari, Silpukhuri, Anil Nagar, Saraniya, Lakhara, Zoo Road faced acute waterloggings and traffic problem in morning hours.

“For the past 40 years, our area is facing the flash-flood problem. Today, children of our locality couldn’t go to schools and the water even entered many of the houses. The small water-pumps and sluice gate in our area are hardly of any help,” said Biswanath Das a resident of Tarun Nagar, where by-lane 6 and 7 are the most affected areas.

“GMC will keep attending the problem, like clearing the silt from blacktopped roads and cleaning the drainage following every rainfall. But the major cause behind the problem of flash-flood in Guwahati is the mud-flow from the surrounding hills that should be dealt with on a larger scale with a scientifically designed scheme,” said S Thiek, Additional Commissioner of the Corporation.

“With the infrastructure available with us, the GMC has cleaned all the silt chambers of the city to maintain a smooth water flow. For the next three months, we have put our officials on high alert, with no holiday at all in the field work,” he added.

However, the temporary measures are doing the least to ease the urban floods in the city as even the drains, that have been cleaned accumulate silt at a brief spell of showers.

Other government departments like PWD, GDD, Water Resource have also been engaged at different levels to take measures against flash floods, but no significant results have been achieved yet.

“The non-functioning of 1.5 kilometres-long underground channel, constructed by Town and Country Planning authorities is the major cause behind flash-flood in Anil Nagar. Now it is being demolished by the PWD authorities, which is yet to complete,” a GDD source mentioned.

“Considering the frequent recurrence of flash-floods in Guwahati, it is evident that the infrastructure to prevent urban flood is not in place. Rather than adopting the quick-fix measures, the State government should opt for a scientifically designed scheme considering the geographical location and existing infrastructure of the city,” a senior citizen from Anil Nagar area mentioned.