Words fall short to describe the horrible situation that Saraswati Vidyalaya faced due to flash floods in Naag River on September 23. Although the school authorities managed to tidy up, as classes needed to be started afresh, the scars still remain fresh. T K Venkatesh, President, South Indian Education Society (SIES), said, “Even today, the picture of that day reminds us of the danger we continue to face. Everytime there is intense rain in the city, the school is likely to face similar threat as measures necessary to avoid flash floods may take years to materialise.” More than one month has gone since the flood that left behind a trail of destruction in its path. ‘The Hitavada’ has launched a stock-taking exercise to ascertain views of citizens as they are the worst sufferers. The citizens are, however firm that administrative apathy towards non-removal of obstructions in the path of the river flow was the prime cause of the floods. While the civic administration has put up temporary tin-shed on the boundary that the school shares with the Naag ‘Nullah’, the wall on other side, with Deaf and Dumb School, too, failed to withstand the wrath of the flood. Venkatesh is however sure that the raised road height in the aftermath of construction of concrete roads was solely responsible for rapid increase in water level inside the school premises.

 

The school’s co-ordinator rushed early in morning on that fateful day after getting intimation about the flood, and he himself reached late in the morning as roads leading to the school were blocked. The damage to school is quite immense as all the computers, the furniture, plus the stored foodgrains (of Mid-Day Meals) were all but destroyed. The water level went upto the first floor and the school is now left counting the losses, as the digital boards of primary section, the furniture, the books in the library, the records, all have been destroyed. Though the rains stopped in the morning, the water inside the classrooms took hours to recede. And later, the scene was pathetic, as heaps of mud and muck was left behind by the flood water inside the classroom and the office chambers, all of which are on ground floor. Post floods, the school management had a herculean task on hand as academic session could not remain disturbed for a very long period. It took nearly 10-days of painstaking efforts to erase the stains and mainly the foul smell that continued to linger on for quite a long period. The school now has to reconstruct two walls, one on the side of nullah and other one bordering the Deaf and Dumb School, and this alone is going to blow a big hole in their society’s pocket. And as for compensation, Venkatesh said the is less said is better as administration and Government have left the middle class to fend for themselves.

 

He said the compensation of Rs 10,000 is a classical joke and wondered how can Government be so insensitive towards the losses of citizens. As to road ahead, Venkatesh felt that the school is vulnerable to gushing of water in case of such heavy rains in future also. The reason, increased height of road post construction of cement roads on North Ambazari Road and WHC. He also wondered the reason for dividers with such high height on either side of school as same are bane for us as it blocks the flow of water to the drains on other side of the road. This results in water moving downstream and inside the school that is situated on the lower end. Earlier also, the city had witnessed floods and Naag Nullah used to be in spate whenever Ambazari Lake overflowed, but never had the water gushed into the school campus. This time however was different. Admittedly the short spell of cloud burst was substantially huge, but it is still a man-made disaster, like the increased road height and that of dividers put paid to any efforts of salvaging anything. The school is over a century old and road height was matched with that of our foundation. Today however, in the name of modernisation, city is witnessing rapid changes without consultation of stakeholders and the result is a total mess. The floods badly exposed the shoddy planning and the improper execution of development works whose price the society is now paying, said Venkatesh further as he narrated the woes of school.

 

Recalling the events of morning of September 23, the SIES President said the water levels upto six feet prevented any chances of stepping into school premises. The water force was such severe that the doors of our rooms and that of store were ripped apart and we could see furniture floating. However, what hurt the most was the sheer wastage of foodgrains that the school had stored carefully. As to losses, he pegged it around Rs 65 lakhs. Post floods, the primary section was closed for few days and school started on-line classes ensuring that students do not suffer. Classrooms were thoroughly cleaned and washed repeatedly. Similarly, disinfectants were also sprinkled yet it took nearly a week for the foul smell of grey water to subside. The terrible loss of books is also a major loss and said it would take some time to return to normalcy. The severity of floods can be imagine from fact that water also gushed in residential locality, Shankar Nagar, behind Deaf & Dumb School. This is first time people have faced the wrath of flood although many of them have been living here for past few decades but they never saw the Naag Nullah flowing through the city as a threat. He also recalled the trouble society faced to refresh the wel. It required nearly two to three days to pump out the gallons of foul water that had entered into the well and then refill fresh water. Same was the case with underground water tanks and the task was quite herculean. The society has not received any help so far and administration will take its own time to carry out necessary repairs and rectification work.

 

Venkatesh said the September 23 flood is a stark reminder to civic administration to have proper drainage system in place. But going by the current picture wherein it took nearly six month period to repair the road that caved in at Lokmat Square, and also the prolonged inconvenience to people due to demolition of two bridges on Naag River, one wonders when would Nagpurians gets respite from the ‘development’ phase. A long-term solution needs to be found out as climate change is now for real and one cannot fathom as to when such cloud burst incident are going to recur in future. Ambazari lake overflow, though an annual event in case of heavy downpour, needs to a contingency plan put in place to tackle the situation. Otherwise, the common citizens would continue to bear the brunt while Government of the day, beyond paying lip service, is hardly going to take much needed corrective measures. The much hyped term of second capital of Maharashtra needs to have something solid infrastructure to be proud of. Otherwise Nagpur is just going to remain just one more city on the State’s map with its own woes of shortcomings and belied expectations as is with other places everywhere, said Venkatesh. Alas everything in country is taken for granted and the high profile visits post flood were nothing but photo-op and nothing much concrete has flowed in as yet. Had the same happened in developed countries, heads would have rolled. But then the ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude that has gripped the Indian society is solely responsible for the mess that city is witnessing right now, said Ventkaesh, hardly hiding his disapproval at the state of affairs.