Monsoons are life line for South Asian countries, where more than 50% of the population rely on agriculture for their livelihood. An ever growing population needs all this water to sustain and thrive.
On one hand this monsoon season can be a boon, but can also create havoc and bring in disaster. Off late you hear about urban flooding more frequently than a couple of decades back. Simple answer which comes to mind is global warming, in-efficient systems etc. I wondered what could be the underlying issues? Are we anywhere responsible for this? Can we rectify or reduce the curse during the monsoons?
What is a typical landscape of a large/medium sized city in India or its sub-continent in today's context
1. Ever increasing population pushing the city limits.
2. Fast paced construction of homes, roads, shops, schools, industries, malls, etc.
3. Decreasing number of trees, green patches, parks and gardens, natural water bodies like lakes, ponds.
4. Sub-optimal drainage/sewer system not designed to handle increasing demand from all it's users.
Have we every thought of the following
1. We have more concrete and paved area than ever before in these cities, every shrinking green and open patches reducing the ability of rain water to seep into mother earth.
2. Construction of drainage and sewer systems happens at the end (sometimes never considered) for any new township or area getting developed.
3. Planning for "Rainy Days" is never considered. We believe in getting something done, not thinking through the impact.
4. Lack of civic sense, garbage disposal system and use of cheap plastic products in various forms adds to the choking/clogging of these drainage system, leading to water logging.
5. Vanishing water bodies and no water catchment plan in place, means inability to hold on to precious rain water for future use.
It is not about the flooding, the loss of property and damages takes a toll on the economy. We are also losing precious ground water around these city which can be catastrophic if we don't have these open patches and ensure a way to replenish this precious commodity -"Fresh Portable Water". You can only out so much.
We all are somewhere responsible and can do our little part along with city planning to ensure these cities don't become just become a concrete jungle. A green and open city will only become the feasible solution to have a comfortable city life.
Would love to get your views and may be some better solutions :).
