Will Nagpur remain flood-free this monsoon?

The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) health department (sanitation) officials are working overtime preparing in view of the arrival of monsoon which is just round the corner.


Taking lessons from last year's bitter experience, when citizens had a tough time due to water logging and flooded roads, the NMC has already started cleaning small, big nullahs and storm water drains. The cleaning work, which began on April 15 about two months before the expected onset of monsoon, has picked up pace now.


Dr Milind Ganvir, NMC health officer (sanitation), claimed that they were all ready for the monsoon and had completed 70% of desilting and nullah-widening work till date. The work of cleaning major water bodies such as Nag river, Pili river, Chambhar nullah and Narendra Nagar nullah was taken up initially.


The city's storm water drainage system comprises the Nag river and Pili river with about 220 minor nullahs emptying into them. The Nag river carries water from Ambazari lake while the Pili Nadi gets water from Gorewada dam. The two rivers intersect at Punapur in East Nagpur.


Although, the city has not witnessed a flood-like situation since 1994, last year's heavy downpour at regular intervals had inundated many low-lying areas and other localities. A similar situation occurs almost every year after heavy rains. Many bridges on Nag and Pili rivers get submerged, sometimes isolating localities.


"As many as six sanitary workers in each ward are working over monsoon related jobs and have been directed to complete the nullah-cleaning work by June 15," Ganvir said.


"About six excavators were used to clean major nullahs and over 820 health workers were pressed into action to clean the small nullahs. The work will also continue at regular intervals during the monsoon," he added. With drainage cleaning job already done and desilting of storm water drains on, the NMC officials hope that the city localities, including low-lying areas, would remain free of water logging problems.


Dr Ganvir said, "The drains and gutters are free of all obstruction but the first showers are always a test and there is always last-minute work to do once it starts pouring. Work on clearing garbage, cleaning footpaths and pavements, spraying of insecticides in gutters, replacing cement slabs on drains, getting rid of encroachments etc, is underway."


Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal held a disaster management meeting with NMC and other department officials. Jaiswal has directed zonal health and sanitary officials to issue notices to owners of open plots which have turned into illegal dumping grounds. Civic head has also directed officials to publish list of Sarpamitra and home guards deployed for disaster management.


NMC has set up a round-the-clock disaster management control room at its Civil Lines headquarters along with 10 zonal level squads to meet any emergency during heavy rainfall. The zonal level monsoon emergency squads comprise personnel from NMC's fire, health, light, anti-encroachment departments and 20 sanitary workers each. The zone officer will be in charge of the squad.




Last year the tall claims of Nagpur Municipal Corporations of having done everything to face the rains were exposed in peak monsoon as traffic on many roads were affected. Heavy spell of rain turned them into ponds several times, which includes even those places where water logging has been occurring for many years.