Letters: Poor scenario planning

With reference to the editorial, "A job for NDMA" (December 9), it is right in suggesting that scenario planning is a must to minimise disasters. The editorial assumes that torrential rain was the root cause for the devastating floods in Chennai. If one analyses the chronology of events, most of the damage caused by flooding in areas adjoining the Adyar river was due to poor scenario planning and the lack of appropriate decisions and actions at the right time. A few of the events are listed below.

Heavy floods in parts of Chennai (riverbanks and nearby areas) started on December 1. This coincided with the opening of floodgates of Chembarambakkam Lake. About 33,500 cusecs of water was supposed to have been released, but a lot more might have been released.

Had the floodgates been opened at a slower pace, beginning on November 26 or 27 when the water level in the lake was about 22 feet, heavy flooding could have been avoided. Newspapers have reported that the engineers advised steps around that time, but action was delayed for reasons known to decision-makers

While the administration took steps from the third week of November to widen the Adyar's flow into the Bay of Bengal, similar efforts were perhaps not initiated to clean up the river after the expected water flow.

The authorities never made proper announcements warning people about the flood due to excess flow of water from the lake. This should have been done on December 1, when the decision to open the floodgates of the lake was taken.

Chennai's citizens have paid the price for the authorities not undertaking scenario planning. In the interest of the city, this needs to be investigated.

Sanjeevi V, Chennai
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