Mumbai During the last two-day workshop on ‘Flood Risk’ in Mumbai, former municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said the floods in Mumbai were a catastrophic humanitarian catastrophe while the rich living at home were enjoying their lives. ‘tea and pakoras’.
“There is often a debate as to whether the floods in Mumbai are a natural or man-made disaster. It is a man-made catastrophe because if it were natural or God-created then the solutions would have come out, where management has to find a solution, ”Mehta said at the event.Speaking at the meeting, Mehta said there is a challenge for community officials when it comes to taking precautionary measures to prevent flooding because these disasters affect the poorest and the rich do not receive much impact.
“For the rich, it is another holiday to have Pakoras and their Chai, while the houses of the poor are full and their pay is lost,” Mehta said. Therefore, the budget does not come easily to us because it is a huge economic loss and a large part of this economic loss is caused by the poor and not the rich, ”he added.
In addition, Mehta said there are a few common features in Mumbai’s annual flood events such as the ‘Planning-Performance-Performance’ disaster. Mehta said it was possible that mitigation measures were not properly planned or that the proposed plans were ‘broken’ by someone.“We need to plan carefully for flood mitigation measures. We need to pay attention to the blue lines, the height of the planks being built and the strength of the suction. The measure of flood mitigation in Mumbai is simply to plan for catastrophic floods that occur in the same areas every year, ”said Mehta.
Meanwhile, Jairaj Phatak, chief IAS official and former municipal commissioner who spoke at the event said the floods were an unpredictable natural disaster.Phatak said man-made disasters are only three stages – natural, nuclear and biological.“Rainstorms and hurricanes are natural disasters that we cannot anticipate and predict. In addition, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has divided urban rainfall from rainfall and flooding in rural areas, ”said Phatak.
He said in urban areas due to the construction of infrastructure, catchment areas are naturally occurring, which automatically increases the number of floods. Urban areas are also densely populated as a result of which losses are high.”As a result of these factors the loss of revenue and infrastructure caused during the monsoon season is high in Mumbai,” Phatak said.
