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Walking on water
- Note OF Dissent
AUG 22 -
Indian print and electronic media have reported extensively on the problem of water logging of Delhi streets due to heavy downpour that has been lashing the Indian capital for the past one and a half months. One report said, “Life in the capital has become tough after the rains.” Another report last month said, “Rains wreaked havoc in Delhi causing water logging, traffic snarls, and as many as eleven deaths.” The Indian capital has an estimated population of over 14 million. The population jumped by 46.3 percent between 1991 and 2001, according to official census figures. Catering to the multi-faced basic needs of the population—half of Nepal’s total—is no mean task, but one which must be carried out. And the rains this year have played havoc with the lives of the people in Delhi, according to media reports. The rains and the resultant water logging in the streets have inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of office goers, students, business persons and housewives.
Delhi is fairly well endowed with resources but meeting the needs of the people, including their daily commuting, is no easy task. No wonder the Delhi administration faced the wrath of the media—and the people—for its lacklustre performance in managing the
rains’ after-effects. The Delhi experience is a pointer to what needs to be done in our own capital before it is too late and too difficult to carry out because of the population rise.
With belated rains lashing the capital and surrounding areas, many people let themselves go and enjoyed walking, running and playing in the rains, especially after the initial dry spell that marked this year’s rainy season. Nature in all its manifestation - beautiful, bountiful and destructive - instructs us all to conserve it. It has been predicted by some scientists that given the way we are now living and the way we treat nature, almost half of the present day living species will become extinct within the next century. A drastic and frightening forecast, indeed. We should be perturbed and wake up to the harsh realities pictured by such forecasts and try in our own small way to help conserve nature. This is necessary if we are to enjoy rains, snow and sunshine the way we have been used to. But down on earth, it is our own authorities who make it impossible to walk the streets even after a brief downpour.
New Road is supposed to be one of the busiest - if not a posh—commercial cum residential area in the country. Yet a walk along the pavements after a brief but heavy rainfall is not without its pitfalls. The pitfalls are in the form of little poodles that develop after the rains along most of the pavements. From New Road Gate to the Juddha Statue, pavements on both sides of New Road are clogged with water and adequate arrangement has not been made to drain the water out. It would not be an exaggeration to say that walking on the pavements after rains is almost a torture. The only alternative for many is to walk along the main street not only hampering the smooth flow of traffic but also increasing the chances of fatal accidents. Who monitors the inconveniences that the pedestrians encounter when walking along New Road pavements? The problems faced by the people in times of rainy season need all the attention that authorities - government and local bodies - can give.
No one really has exact figures on the population of the Kathmandu Valley. The 1981 census put it at 422,237 and it had increased by almost 60 percent in the 1991 census to 675,341. There was an increase of another 60 percent and the 2001 census put
the population at 1,081,845. The population of the capital today is anyone’s guess, ranging from over four million to just over two million. It might be that many of the people in the city today are temporary residents. But the fact remains that the core of the Kathmandu city is overburdened with people and their movements have to be made as smooth and easy as possible even during rainy season.
The water collection at every three metres or so on the New Road pavements would certainly have been avoided if the concerned engineers and
construction companies had ensured that the pavements were evenly level with the slight slant towards the open street side drain. On the top of the uneven pavement surface that allows collection of rain water, the pavements become frequent victim to digging by one authority or the other and shopkeepers who want to mould the pavement to their own taste.
This is true not only of New Road but of most roads in the Valley. Construction flaws can and do take place but letting them go unattended is what irks many people. The Kathmandu roads, most of them in the inner parts, are full of potholes which are filled whenever there is a downpour. As many of the inner city roads lack pavements, the vehicles that run over the rain-filled potholes are sure to dirty clean clothes of pedestrians.
One can easily see that there is not much coordination among the government agencies and others who use the road either by laying cables or water and sewerage pipes with the result that the same patch of road is dug up several times making it unfit for walking, and even less for driving. No wonder, therefore, that walking along the pavements in New Road - or elsewhere else in the Valley for that matter - soon after rains is a very inconvenient experience which the authorities so far seem to have neglected.
Posted on: 2010-08-23 07:35
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