Chennai Rains, A Cautionary Signal
The heavy rains of the 1st week of November 2021 totally collapsed the Tamil Nadu Capital. Barely within 6-years, Chennai City witnessed this kind of humungous non-stop showers. It’s the regular occurrence. If we look at the record of Chennai City (or any city for that matter), that could’ve submerged at least 4 or 5 times underwater in the last 50-years. Even repeatedly attacked by nature, it clearly shows that we haven’t learned the bitter lesson. The successive governments never had any kind of proactive approach to stop this menace. During the past 30 years, a huge land encroachment swallowed hundreds of tanks. The governments also ignored to increase the water storage capacity of existing tanks, lakes, canals and marshlands. Not much big renovation work took place in this regard. Due to the onslaught of global warming, we can expect severe weather conditions in the future. Still, we don’t have long-term vision or plan. What we need now is a coordinated plan of various departments to restore our waterways and ensure an efficient water management system in place. Instead of political parties blaming each other, they have to realize the truth and get ready for action. Let us make the system functioning and efficient at all times to avoid the disasters.
By
Editor-in-Chief