RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY: MADRASI’S WANT TO GO ABOUT THEIR APATHETIC WAYS

December 2015 dawned upon the city of Madras with the rain God launching a sustained attack to debilitate the city after his initial attacks during November. It really looked like Varuna Bhagwan was going all-out for the kill and was expressing his unhappiness with the city by battering it with 20 cms of rainfall in 14 hours since 8.30 am that fateful day of 1^st December 2015 which left more than half of the city marooned.

Beating the record of 108.8 cms which was set in 1918, the Meteorology office registered 119.73 cms rain in Tamil Nadu till 30^th November 2015. However, the record of maximum rainfall in a single day, 45 cms in 24 hours, is said to have been shattered later on 1st December 2015. Madras, which received 49 cm of rain and Chembarambakkam, where the reservoir surplussed about 25,000 cusecs of water into Adyar river, received 47 cms of rains in the last 24 hours that flooded the city and the suburbs, uprooting people from their homes.

Kids were the happiest of them all since they had an opportunity to play in the rains with the Tamil Nadu government announcing holidays continuously for schools and colleges from November onwards while a few factories and offices which were inundated with water were also closed during the last couple of days. In fact the weatherman on TV, Ramanan who is the spokesperson for the Meteorological Department has developed a demi-God status with kids praising Ramanan uncle as the bearer of good news. One good thing about these rains is that all school going children upon waking up in the mornings view the news on TV without fail. At least the rains have promoted the habit of getting to know the news among the children.

When southern suburbs including Velachery, Madipakkam, Tambaram and Perungalathur were fully cut off from Madras, traffic on Anna Salai, GST Road, OMR, Poonamallee High Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Salai was completely thrown out of gear. Roads reportedly caved in at several stretches.

Flood warnings have been issued and a few thousands have been relocated from their homes since major lakes surrounding the city were breached and thus flooded residential areas in the southern suburbs. Water from Guduvanchery, Urapakkam, Perungalathur, Padappai, Mannivakkam and Adhanur lakes had entered residential areas within a few hours of rain and by the night of 1^st December 2015, the major damage had been done.

Even before this could happen, power supply was cut-off in almost sixty percent of the city. As the water level kept on increasing, several hospitals were forced to stop functioning. The city airport was temporarily shut till 6^th December 2015 and the operations will resume only after a review meeting to assess the safety of the runways as the water from the Adyar river on one side and the Chembarambakam lake on the other has started entering the runways and parking bays. Trains coming into Madras have been stopped outside the city and trains departing from Madras have been cancelled for the next couple of days. Fixed line telephone and mobile services too have been hit and most numbers remain inaccessible.

Residents in southern suburbs were the worst affected and those who went to work on 1^st December were stranded at different points en route to their destinations after bus and train services stopped. Tambaram and Mudichur areas have been most affected with hundreds of houses completely submerged under water. Suburban railway stations were flooded with people after many who had to reach destinations south of the city could not find vehicles. Subsequently the Suburuban Train services too were discontinued as the tracks were submerged under water. The National Highway, GST road, connecting the city with the southern districts of Tamil Nadu was fully cut off from the main city and stranded vehicles were seen floating on the road by nightfall that day. In short it was total collapse of the city’s infrastructure.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has reported that “The financial loss due to the floods may exceed Rs.15,000 crores” while it was earlier reported that the State government had earlier put the total loss at Rs.8,481 crores after the first spell of rains in November 2014.

While the rain has had a devastating impact on the life of the people of the city, it has led me to contemplate on its causes and the attitude of our people which I would now like to discuss here:

1. In the name of growth and development we are tampering with the forces of nature by polluting and altering the elements. However, we are not prepared to face the backlash of the so called growth and development.
2. Historically, Madras as a township developed only to its North, since the southern borders of the city was surrounded by lakes, tanks and low lying areas which served to replenish the groundwater levels of the city. The population explosion and the urban migration created a demand for land which unscrupulous elements exploited by managing to convert these areas into housing plots by bribing the government and its officials thereby making a fast buck without worrying about future implications. These greedy people who bribed the city officials to obtain building permissions to build on dry lake beds and low lying feeder areas which were not originally meant for human habitation have caused flooding and also have ensured that the city’s water supply runs dry as soon as it turns summer since the rain flood water does not recharge the ground water but only runs into the sea.
3. The people who settled in these low level areas are now suffering and lamenting without realizing that they are the victims of their own actions. I was surprised to watch local News Channels wherein the public of Madras were blaming everyone and everything else except themselves for the flooding of the city. Wake up Madras. Don’t fool yourself. We blame the Government for the effects of nature and blame nature for the effects of corrupt governance.
4. This disaster has revealed the character of the city and while a few citizens have come forward to help and aid the victims of the rain and floods a majority of the citizens are only interested in making hay when the sun does not shine. When thousands of stranded citizens in the city suburbs were fleeced by opportune share autos, private vans and auto rickshaws to commute late on 1^st December night, state run buses refused to ply and many Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) buses were parked on the roadsides in bus depots near Tambaram, Pallavaram and Vadapalani. Right from the auto and cab drivers who want to charge Rs.300 to Rs.500 for a 3 to 4 km ride to the grocers who hike up the prices of vegetables and groceries to the guys who supply milk at 3 times its actual cost, everybody wants to make hay when the sun does not shine.
5. While there is a huge hue and cry from the people and the politicians on the way my beloved city has suffered, I do not expect any tangible and positive results of this outburst for all this hullabaloo will die down within a few days when news of some scandal or the other breaks on the media and we will remain unprepared until yet another cyclone or flood makes us wake up and make a lot of noise before we go back to sleep once again. In short, I am trying to say that we will never learn from the past and our preparedness or handling of disasters will be the same; just plain inefficient

On the fateful day of 1^st December, I witnessed a sight which for me symbolised the true spirit of Madras. I was returning by an auto-rickshaw from office and the road outside my colony had rain water flowing while a man facing a wall was pissing into the flowing water and the people nearby nonchalantly waded through the piss mingled water. Three cheers for Suchhu Bharat!!!

We people just don’t care and remain apathetic irrespective of whatever happens to our city; and they say there are more rains expected but who cares???