WE THE PEOPLE
Even with pumping crores of rupees in drainage sector, Sher-e-Khas and Civil-lines areas get inundated after low intensity rainfall
Hence people urge UEED/SMC officials to ensure connectivity of drains, demand more dewatering stations to control submergence in Kashmir
By: Safwan Khan
Srinagar: Kashmir Valley has peculiar hydraulic characteristics and presents a hydrograph, which needs close study and monitoring by Hydraulic Engineers to ensure safety and security to people living in the Valley. Some experts are on record to have revealed that the State has rich potential for power generation and sufficient water reserves to irrigate vast unirrigated lands. But apathetic attitude of the politicians and technocrats has put the state in general and Kashmir valley in particular in the backyard so far. We are face to face with power crisis and vast areas are without irrigation facilities even after 60 years of India’s Independence. We lack effective drainage and sewerage system, which is unheard in the modern times today. This establishes beyond any shadow of doubt that our planning has been faulty and priorities quite wonky. No doubt, the State Government created Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) in late seventies to tackle drainage and sewerage problems of the State, but it has not come up to the expectations of the people of the State so far. Even low intensity rainfall in enough to drown major portions of Srinagar’s uptown and downtown areas. This is due to wrong design of the drainage system by the UEED and faulty planning of the State Government. The former has been pumping huge sums of money in the construction of drains, which have no connectivity, resulting in the submergence of the areas. The latter is responsible for the conversion of Nallah Mar into a road, depriving thereby Sher-e-Khas population of the drainage facility. The filling of Nallah Mar has also affected water circulation system of Dal and Nageen lakes quite adversely. Therefore, it reinforces necessity to set-up a high power technical committee to probe into the working of the UEED and suggest measures to improve the system to avoid frequent inundation of upper and lower segments of the city of Srinagar.
The State Government established UEED in late seventies to identify problems of drainage and sewerage in Jammu and Kashmir and suggest measures to remedy the situation. The said Department reportedly undertook detailed studies to see the magnitude of the problems and set-up various divisions to do the job. Even services of some country’s top experts were hired to study the problem and suggest measures to resolve the issues faced by people in twin capitals of the State. The foreign experts too were invited to study the problem, who reportedly suggested Micro-Tunneling and construction of several Plants for the treatment of sewage discharged by the city population. The foreign experts were of the view that open drains were not possible in congested belts of the city of Srinagar and would involve heavy compensation for the houses. What followed after such a comprehensive exercise was the construction of a few deep and surface drains, but without any proper connectivity. Influential persons, who got drains constructed outside their houses but not connected with the disposal sites, allegedly guided the construction of drains. The result being that most of such drains, constructed at a huge cost, have got silted-up, causing thereby huge financial loss to the State exchequer. The dewatering pump stations constructed at various sites lack proper connectivity with low-lying areas and thus unable to drain out such areas.
“ The Municipal scavengers used to clean deep and surface drains to ensure proper flow of waste water discharged by the houses located in a particular area. But with the establishment of the UEED, the charge of the drainage system got shifted from erstwhile Srinagar Municipality to the newly created department. The UEED went on constructing drains in patches, without caring for final disposal of the drainage. There are number of drains, especially in Civil lines areas, which have been totally rendered defunct as these are not connected with the disposal sites. The low-lying areas have been mostly left out and these are the chronic zones, which pose grave threat to the population, whenever there is heavy precipitation in the Valley. The UEED has constructed several permanent and temporary dewatering stations at various places in the city of Srinagar, but most of them do not operate during emergencies on one pretext or the other. With the power failure, most of them turn non-functional as the Department has failed to provide diesel/kerosene driven pumps at such places. It has been observed that a small shower is enough to drown the areas with no one to mitigate our sufferings. The Departmental officials surface whenever there is acute drainage crisis and go into hibernation during normal times,” said a group of senior citizens of Kashmir valley.
Hence people urge UEED/SMC officials to ensure connectivity of drains, demand more dewatering stations to control submergence in upper and lower segments of Kashmir valley.
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