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| Sunday, 27 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Clogged drains, flooded streets... : don't cry foul Mr. Citzen !
by Jayanthi Liyanage and Farah Marcan Markar Last week's rains and the immediate out-break of floods in Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Colombo have brought a compelling home truth closer. that is Sri Lanka needs a deeply-infiltrating "paradigm shift", seeping from the national policy makers to the lowest sediments at grassroots levels - to manage its frequently occurring natural disasters. Showers through Friday to Sunday alone was sufficient to inundate roads, highways and households, its torrents destroying property, livestock and even killing a resident caught unaware at Dankotuwa. It is time to take a collective breather in the national rush for relief and rehabilitative measures and make concrete efforts for disaster inclusion in the country's development curriculum so that the pre-disaster reduction and prevention procedure wins the onus over the much touted post-disaster melee. Nothing could be easier than shifting the blame at all and sundry. But taking the "flood by its horns" would only be successful by a scrupulous picking out of the lapses and loopholes which bug on undetected, in the elephantine administrative and maintenance cog which run the sprawling metropolis and suburbia. Our flood preparation is usually ad hoc and temporary. People take safety measures only when the surrounding water levels are high and then the only shelter is finding a higher elevation. Last Sunday, as the pelting downpour hit the vast Kalapaluwawa garbage-dump, "sili-sili" bags floated on to the swiftly flooding Rajagiriya-Gothatuwa Road, spilling out rotting refuse and its damp stench. What clogged the city's sewerage lines that a night's rain had murky water throwing its excess through man-holes onto roads and by-ways? Was it garbage; or, badly managed septic sludge; or, all the debris and dirt that had collected on roads for days, with no one taking the trouble to maintain a clean network of roads? Is the city, which has exhausted its vacant and buildable space, so packed with houses and squatter settlements that when the rains come, it has no vacant plots-in-between but flow out and rise in pools and puddles around houses? Are the regularly experienced floods a localised problem, with people themselves being short-sighted enough to let floods batter them by constructing their houses on low elevations? Do we need to enforce better adherence to flood-sensitive and drainage-sensitive land and construction regulations and sufficient early-warning systems of impending floods? In Elakanda, where the floods were subsiding on Monday, a young housewife from the banks of Elakanda Canal told us, "Invariably, twice a year, our house is flooded when rains swell the canal. This canal has not been dredged and de-silted for years and we pay the price during the rainy season." "Colombo's 44 kilo metre canal system, picking the drainage from roadside drains, still have a lot of carrying capacity," asserts D.T. Thalagala, General Manager, Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLRDC), which bear the responsibility of ensuring that the canals flow unclogged, taking their refuse cargo either to the sea or to a connected river. "We still have an additional retention area of 1,000 acres." Ensuring a smooth drainage flow in roadside drains belongs to the local authorities with the responsibility for cleaning main highways and their drains come under the Road Development Authority. "People who construct houses on low lands are advised to build five feet above the mean sea level (msl), which is the minor floor level, or seven feet above msl which is the higher floor level," stresses Thalagala. "If you build a house two feet above msl on a marshy land, is it any wonder that it gets flooded?" Sri Lanka Urban Multi-Hazard Disaster Mitigation Project (SLUMP) is a joint project of Urban Development Authority, National Building Research Organization and Centre for Housing Planning and Building has been functioning as an Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre from 1997. The project has completed a hazard zonation mapping for Ratnapura, Nawalapitiya and Kandy Municipality covering flood-prone areas, which the town planners and others could consult in development activity. "River water floods, caused by catchments, has no direct solution unless they are drained off by a good drainage mechanism. But rain floods are created by blocked open or underground drains.," says the project director. One acid rule to remember is "Don't ever throw polythene bags into a drain," she admonishes. "Sili-sili bags are the biggest causer of local inundations!" This throws the greater responsibility on the citizens, though the local authorities such as municipalities and pradeshiya sabhas cannot sideline the major burden which lands on them for regular maintenance of clog-free drains and cleaner roads in their respective localities. "Never throw solid waste into drains," warns SLUMP. "If you do, then don't cry foul if floods come!" V. Jegarajasingham, Secretary to Minister of Social Welfare, echoes the same disillusioned sentiments. "People are not concerned. As educated members of society, we don't even know how to dump our garbage on one spot on roadsides. Builders get construction designs, with no proper drainage plans, approved by local authorities without going through proper channels. Every man thinks duty is the other's job!" The National Disaster Management Centre of the Ministry is responsible for making awareness to the Divisional and District Secretaries and grassroots officials on how to reduce harm which could be caused by an impending natural disaster. "We issue advance notice on how to take mitigative action and make aware the vulnerable communities. This can be difficult at times, as when floods come, some people prefer to sit on the roof tops and wait." The Centre, though currently does not have much command over disaster prevention, should spring into action when the National Disaster Counter-Measures Bill comes through in barely three more months. "This Act will establish a National Council, consisting of Ministers of Irrigation, Housing, Provincial Council, Environment and all other relevant Ministers, for formulating a National Disaster Management Plan and a National Emergency Operation Plan," explained Mrs. Jegarajasingham. "The Council's decisions will be the national policy and it will have a Technical Committee to advise the government on what to do during disaster patterns." And the Centre will be the Secretariat empowered with legal teeth to implement the Council decisions. The Act will also make provision to run disaster management information data banks from national, provincial to grassroots levels with committees acting at each level. "So that when Galle is flooded, Galle Committee can act on its emergency plan." As she concludes, relief always goes on. The question is prevention. Main causes for floods
This is a problem created by everyone. People throw polythene bags everywhere. These collect and most of the time clog up the drainage systems, thus creating water blocks. This is one reason for floods. Drainage There are no proper drainage systems in Sri Lanka. Some places do not even have drains. At times canals are just built without any proper planning, causing floods to the nearby areas. Houses This is a big problem today. With the increase in population, there is an increasing demand for land, which is limited. As a result there is a lot of congestion since people build houses with no proper planning or authorisation. In the past there were a lot of vacant plots of land between houses, now they are all filled in with houses and as a result there is no room for the water to flow. Roads Another reason for flooding is the fact that the roads here are not maintained. Roads are constructed by the Road Development Authority, the Municipal Council and the Provincial Councils. These roads are generally badly maintained. They have no drainage systems or badly constructed ones which result in water being collected and ultimatelyleading to floods. ************************* A muddy tale In a corner at Elakanda Handiya is a shop called Technica Electronics.
It is owned by Lambert Rodrigo father of four children, two girls and two
boys. On Sunday, October 20,Lambert Rodrigo's house was flooded with water
and the ensuing destruction cost him Rs.200,000 Here is Lambert's story.
"Our house is located at Balagala waththa, Hendala. At the back of our house is a four feet high wall. Behind it is a space of bare land belonging to a tea factory situated nearby. They have not built a proper drainage system and the ground slopes towards our houses. As a result of this, when it rains there is nowhere for the water to go and it starts to collect. It was raining right through last Friday, and countinued till Sunday. On Sunday morning the bare land behind our wall was filled up like a
tank and kept on filling. At about 6:10 a.m. the water broke through the
wall with a bang, immediately flooding my neighbour's (who is my brother)
and my house. My wife and daughter were just there next to the wall. My
wife was swept inside by the torrent. My daughter rushed into the bathroom
which was also flooded. She saved herself by hanging onto a beam in the
roof. There was also at the time two boarders who were in the bedroom.Rubble which swept through the house to the front garden
The water broke in through the door filling up the rooms. They escaped
through the roof. It took about an hour for the water to subside. Our
house was filled with dirt, mud and stones. The bathroom was filled with
stones. the doors were broken here and there. The fridge, washing machine,
computer and generator were all destroyed. Cups, glasses, plates and
clothes were all swept away. The well from where we get our drinking water
was filled with mud. We reported the matter to the Wattala Divisional
Secretary and the O.I.C. of the Wattala Police. We were lucky to escape
with our lives and the house, but the escape was narrow and the damage
caused was excessive".
Mr. Lawrence Madiwala, a Provincial Council Member of the Western Province, who looked into the matter says "The wall built by the factory owners wasn't strong enough. There was also no drainage system.Thus the water collected and ultimately broke out through the weakest spot". The contractor who built the wall says, "There was no place for the water to flow. That's why this happened. The factory owners however have agreed to pay compensation to Mr. Lambert Rodrigo and also want to build a pipeline to let the water flow out". |
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