The monsoon is just a month or so away. What was once a welcome feature of Chennai life has become dreaded no matter if it is in excess or in deficit. Of late, what with the setting up of high-energy consuming and potentially environment degrading desalination plants the city seems to have more water than it needs and so it is the flooding that it has come to be apprehensive about. And it is in this context that it perhaps needs to take a leaf out of Colombo’s book. The Sri Lankan capital, if the BBC is to be believed, has taken giant strides in managing its flood risk.
An article by Zinara Rathnayake dated September 21, 2024, on www.bbc.com describes Colombo as it was fifteen years ago. And the similarities to Chennai cannot be more striking. The city, says the author, is built on a network of wetlands, all of which were part and parcel of people’s lives. They fished there and used the water for cultivation. As the city grew in the 1920s, people began acquiring the wetlands, draining them, and building houses. This led to flooding and to contain the new menace, the British set up a flood management system involving a chain of canals. All went well as long as the canals were clean but when they choked up in recent years, the city began to flood again. To compound problems, the Government considered the wetlands ideal spaces for dumping garbage and mountains of waste began to appear. One of these collapsed in 2017, killing 32 people. The civil war saw displaced people being housed on the wetlands. All of this led to one of the worst floods in 2010, which submerged Parliament as well for good measure.
Since 2016 however, there has been a change. In a very conscious effort to recognise the importance of wetlands, the Governmenthas made them a part of urban planning. Land around these natural sinks was converted into open, recreational spaces so that people began flocking to them in large numbers. That led to greater awareness on the degradation that was going on. People banded together and volunteer groups started removing garbage. The Government helped by pulling up invasive species of plants so that the waterways were cleared. As a consequence, around four wetland parks have come up, together with recreational spaces around other wetlands. The end is not yet in sight, but a beginning has been made and its benefits are visible to all.
Contrast this with what is happening in our city. There is recognition that wetlands are valuable but in the absence of a comprehensive planning policy, beyond parroting that these need to preserved nothing much has been done. Wetlands continue being encroached upon most often by Government agencies and vested interests with clout high up in the administration. The National Green Tribunal keeps pronouncing judgements very few of which are acted upon. Getting away with impunity is the order of the day.
What is noteworthy is that people are willing to cooperate. There is awareness among them as to the importance of wetlands but when there is no direction, restoration is often piecemeal, sporadic and of limited impact. And therefore, waterway clean ups are viewed as the responsibility of ‘someone else’ with cynical resignation when it all goes wrong, together with bursts of rage when floods happen. Should we not break out of this vicious cycle? And while people can help, it is absolutely necessary that the Government shows its seriousness by means of a policy, followed by action on the ground.