Heavy rains caused waterlogging in several areas of the summer capital hampering vehicular and pedestrian movement.
Roads in many areas including LalChowk, Residency Road, MA Road, Munwarabad, BohriKadal, Hari Singh High Street, ZainaKadal, Khayam, Polo View were waterlogged.
On Thursday, the dilapidated roads also turned into cesspool. Photographs of dilapidated road with water logging of areas including Syed Abad Soiteng, Lasjan, Padshahibagh also went viral on social media. Netizens also uploaded photographs and videos of water logging occurred in different areas and raised questions over the concerned authorities’ inaction.
The problem is compounded by defunct drainage system. The existing drainage system has not been desilted for years. After the devastating floods of 2014, the already bad drainage system went worse due to further accumulation of silt brought by floods waters in 2014.
However, the authorities have not done much to fix the problem once for all by taking appropriate measures. In various city markets, shops have been affected as water and sewage pools in front of these shops. “Authorities must wake up. They must repair or reconstruct the drainage system,” said Abdul Majid, a shopkeeper at Hari Singh High Street.
Seconding him, Umar Ahmad, salesman said that existing drain is full of silt, choking the flow of water.
Residents of HMT said as the drains aren’t desilted and cleaned for years, it has solidified over the years and blocked the drains, causing to flow back. “Several appeals to SMC went unheard, they alleged. SMC workers come and fix the matter temporarily by cleaning the drains. The drainage lines are very old and need replacement,” they added.
Powerful pumps are required to remove the garbage and silt in the drains so that sewage makes its way towards exit points.
In Downtown Srinagar, the drains at few places were manually cleaned. But as per expert, manual work for cleaning silt would be an ineffective measure to fix the problem. “There is a process for effective desiltation of drainage system. That has to be followed to ensure water logging don’t occur again,” said an expert.
A senior officer of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) said that annual de-silting proposal has been prepared involving a cost of Rs nine crore, “but due to non-availability of the funds, the proposal could not materialize.”