As a young girl I have crossed the gentle scenic Adyar river along with my grandpa, through a boat for which the charge was negligible.Taking shortcuts we used to reach Gandhi Mandapam which was a quite place then. Many times crossing the river bridge near Adyar, sitting in a crowded MTC bus, I have seen the bus driver,taking a break during sultry summers for a few minutes on the bridge, just to enjoy the cool gentle sea breeze and the placid waters flowing down the bridge,good enough to soothe the stressed out nerves of every passenger.
But the same river turned fierce this time gobbling up the entire stretch along its course, flooding many parts of of Singara Chennai and snatching scores of lives in the process.May be it was this way of taking sweet revenge on the whole lot of people, who had no qualms in turning the river in to stinking sewage canal.
Welcome to the Singara Chennai which is now both sinking and stinking.Perennially a water starved city,its citizens longingly looked at the skies for rains-the prayers were answered not with gentle showers but a maniac outpouring. Tuesday shattered the hopes and dreams of many people of Chennai,particularY the middle class and the lower strata of the society, caught in the swirling waters of Adyar and Cooum rivers.
Few decades back when middle class people shifted to suburbs due to its low priced houses and obscene high rentals prevailing in the city, many were not aware that these suburbs lacked the basic infrastructure and the subsequent nightmares that were to follow. The result was that they had to face the wrath of nature.Many lost valuable things and had to leave their homes running away from the floods literally. Every year the rains bring untold miseries to the slums lined along the water lines but this year the middle class were hit hard due to poor infrastructure of the suburbs.
40 cams of rain in just one hour is just what Simgara Chennai couldn't handle and overnight it turned to Sink-ara Chennai.With name sake storm water drains,surging waters found the easiest way by entering houses upto 2nd floor.
Owing due to its flat terrain even a slight drizzle caused water logging in Chennai but a deluge like this for which nobody was prepared, saw people clinging to their dear lives and leaving their homes at many places which had severe water logging. Illegal sewer connections connected to the storm water drains gave off and what people had to endure was stinking stagnant waters.
We can never take Nature for granted and the way we plunder nature, cutting trees, mining sand in river beds,encroachments of lakes, ponds and river beds,non maintenance of storm water drains,illegal sewer connections, politicians' indifference and people's ignorance have combined together presenting a devastating picture.Its is high time we analyse the causes for this kind of deluge and take remedial measures so that we are not caught on the wrong foot next time!