From Tuesday night, ever since the rains lashed out on the city, Mumbai - the city that never sleeps- has been thrown into a state of chaos and pandemonium. North Mumbai suburbs have been submerged in water bringing all activity to a standstill. School children, the working class, elders, preganant women trudged through waist deep water, throughout the night, drenched in the rains that with unrelenting force beat down on the city.
In places like Kalina, Santacruz, Vikroli, people waded through neck deep water, water infested with cockroaches, human faeces, dead cattle. Thousands of lives were wiped away. Mumbaikars have lost all they owned and the slum dwellers have been hit hardest. Colleges and schools, educators, principals came forward at this time and offered all possible help. Several good samaritans offered their homes as shelters for the night as thousands, yet, stood stranded in the middle of the city as all public transport came to a halt. The reporters of several News Channels, NDTV, Aaj Tak must be commended for their bravery and commitment toward the masses at this critical time and for keeping every Mumbaikar abreast of the situation and the magnitude of the disaster. Still, there are several questions that remain unanswered. The predictions of the meteoroligical department leaves much to be desired.
The responsibility of the Bombay Muncipal Corporation towards checking on the encroachment of forest, marsh areas for concretization.Unscrupulous building activity, bribery, cheap constructions... it has been going on for years unchecked. The city drainage system is a 100 years old! This is the wake up call that Mumbai was waiting for. At what cost? And isthere a solid reconstruction plan in order? Who do we hold responsible at this time? It is the first time in a 100 years that Mumbai has witnessed a natural calamity like this due to the monsoons.
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15 comments:
So far,the government authorities have been following the adage: "If it ain't broken, don't mend it" & now it has been well & truly proved to be broken and useless - the administrative machinery that is, not the never-say-die spirit that keeps this city throbbing and alive.Previously, I used to pride myself on being a Mumbaikar, but now I am absolutely sure that this is THE city to belong to.No other city would have withstood (is that a correct word?) 944 mm of rainfall, a non-existent government, poor infrastructure,management disaster (no, this is NOT a typo) and yet bounced back so admirably!!
About the post, well, it got delayed a bit due to some last moment work that came up and then was busy with helping out a few of my friends who suffered a lot due to the deluge.But now, things are back to normal and you can expect it to be up within a day or two.
Keep writing!!
this sounds awful. the government that you speak of should be ashamed of them selves for allowing such a thing to happen. this is surely a case of wanton neglect?
i am also concerned when you say that 'thousands of lives were washed away'. by this i hope bits of furniture and not dead bodies? christ i hope so. we have lost too many people in recent months under tragic circumstance.
i hope that you and yours are ok?
x
That is a very well written post and you ask excellent questions. There are many ancient cities in the world who do not have a drainage system as modern as 100 years old, but the question is how much have they been upgraded or adapted to meet the needs of today. Also, Indian monsoons are quite serious so perhaps it is time for the city to start rebuilding the system. Backed up systems can bring many problems as well as carry and spread disease.
Your article really gets the mind thinking and asking questions. Nice job! I hope you are well and your studies are going great.
our govt is crap!
hey nic,
how r u doing? ur post is good and though provocaating as usual.
howz college?
its taking time for me to get back to blogging, but all the same drop in to my blog.
(hope u haven't forgotten me!;)
cheers
(mail me for more)
its a difficult time for the Indian goverment to try and deal with peoples needs as quickly as possible.
Glad to hear you werent caught up in it.
We have the same problem here in the Philippines. It has become a vicious cycle, so much so, that people do not expect help from the government anymore, which is a pity.
Power corrupts.
Sameer-> I wish I could agree with you in saying that everything has returned back to normal. I personally know so many people in my very college, who have to pick up the pieces and start life anew, for they have lost everything in the floods.
CJ-> There is no single authority that can be blamed really. It is to a large extent responsibility of the citizen that counts. Environmental education and awareness needs to be imparted at school level.
Neel-> Yes, Im doing quite well. You are right....I think we have all got complacent.
Gulnaz-> ^ ^ - and so are we ?
Shubho -> Where have you been? Glad you're back.
BBCD -> True....thats why we need an effective disaster management system in place.
Free Spirit-> Ditto.
Wow at times nature takes its course and falls on us...the natural disaster at times hit us so bad and it takes its tool on us no matter how prepared we are....
Thank you so much for allowing us to read about it...Some of us livinig in different part of the world we tend to clueless
It's at times like this that I realise how insignificant are the problems I face, we kind of expect that things will be sorted out, not that we don't get weather capable of killing, but we expect that there will be support and emergency services with high tec equiptement on the scene in minutes and shelter and evacuations within a short time. As you say an indomitrouble spirit but what choice do you have, adversity shows how strong people can be, and how kind.
oye- where r u???
missing you girl. hurry back and soon!!!
Nasra- When a fellow man sufers, we feel their pain in some degree no matter where we are placed geographically.
Sue- And we are constantly reminded...
Aisha, Cocaine - Here I am. Sorry, have been extremely busy off late.
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