Pune: Housing societies in the city have concretised their internal premises, which is not allowing rainwater to percolate in the ground. Hence, rainwater is flowing outside on the roads and causing flooding in the city. Housing societies will have to dig ditches for the purpose, said Rajendra Bhosale.
Thus, the civic administration has squarely blamed citizens for flooded streets in the city.
Streets in the city were flooded twice in the last week. Within half an hour rainwater drains lost their capacity to carry water and knee-deep and waist-deep water could be seen at many places. Houses, shops were inundated while two-wheelers were washed away and four-wheelers drowned in flood water.
It was a chaotic situation. Nullah currents have been changed to facilitate construction on their banks. At some places, construction has been done on small natural streams by reclaiming land. Rainwater drains have not been cleaned before the monsoon. At many places, rainwater drains are missing. Optical fiber cables are laid through drain ducts. This has actually caused flooding, said citizens.
The municipal commissioner reviewed the flood situation on Tuesday (June 10). He said, “Constructions have been done by changing the course of water channels or dumping debris in them. Encroachments have taken place along the nullahs. We will correct these anomalies. The civic machinery acted quickly after flooding of the streets.
“Steps have been taken, where severe flooding happened. Concretisation in housing societies is resulting in water flowing outside them on the streets. To mitigate this, ditches will have to be dug in societies.”
Deputy Municipal Commissioners will have night duty
As it was pouring in the city, junior engineers were monitoring the situation from the Disaster Management Cell. There was no coordination in their work. The Municipal Commissioner has decided to change this.
An officer of the Deputy Municipal Commissioner’s rank will now be posted in the Disaster Management Cell from 8 am till 8 pm. They will coordinate with the Disaster Management Squads under the 15 ward offices in the city. They will immediately send manpower and machinery to the areas where floods worsen.
An officer of the Deputy Municipal Commissioner’s rank will be posted daily in the cell, said civic chief Bhosale.
