How prepared are civic bodies for the upcoming monsoon in Delhi this year?
New Delhi: With the monsoon around the corner in the national capital region, several governing bodies within the city have started preparing for the onslaught of rains and winds. Action plans to deal with issues of waterlogging, tree fallings, traffic, etc are being prepared.
Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena recently chaired a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other top officials of concerned departments to review Delhi's preparedness for the upcoming monsoons. They discussed various issues such as water recharge, conservation, augmentation, drainage and plans for retention of water through sink-holes/pits at various locations like parks and roadsides.
Civic bodies such as MCD and NDMC have also started preparations to deal with the rains this year. Especially, after receiving flak for not being able to deal with the aftermath of the hailstorm on May 30. Marking the onset of monsoon in Delhi, the hailstorm brought down many trees and caused various other issues for the residents. Civic bodies received over 700 complaints with regard to the hailstorm, several of which are yet to be resolved. Many trees remain on the ground in various parts of Delhi.
Keeping the lack of response in mind, several residents of Delhi have questioned if the governing bodies will be able to deal with the upcoming rains. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) issued warnings to watch out for the rain on Thursday. However, the civic bodies are insisting that they are ready to deal with the onslaught of rain.
MCD officials stated that they have intensified action in terms of monsoon preparedness and have already identified 75 hotspots that they will be watching closely in case of emergency. They have also engaged several staff on ground; domestic breeding checkers (DBC) — 1,120 and Field worker — 1,350.
Other than this, MCD claims they have sufficient equipment for four zones at least and are working to get more. They have a total of 1,700 pithu pumps, 266 ganesh pumps, 520 HOFM, 8 tiffas and 45 motorized machines. Additionally, MCD reached out to the NDRF for advice on the situation and said their meetings have been "very positive; they are willing to extend all help." MCD will also be engaging its staff in training camps in phases to help with the situation.
NDMC is also preparing for the situation, they have launched six control rooms in hotspots such as Khan Market, Sangli Mess area, Netaji Nagar, Malcha Marg, Hanuman Road and Mandir Marg which will taking any complaints that residents under the NDMC area report and dealing with them in a quick fashion as per NDMC officials. An NDMC officer also said that there will be approximately 600 NDMC staffers on ground per day and HP pumps have been deployed to deal with any waterlogging, NDMC also has functional 278 rainwater harvesting pits for water conservation purposes.
Officials from both civic bodies have said that they are preparing for the worst case scenarios and will try to ensure that their responses are quick.
