Delayed Monsoon

All this rain in Sydney reminds me of the last time i was caught up in a downpour- Chennai in novemeber 2005. The amount of rain was ridiculous- people were telling me that they could not recall such a deluge since the 70's. I was taking a train into the city when we went across the Saidapet bridge over the Adayar river. My uncle was telling me how in his college days, they used to guage the amount of rainfall based on the level of the Adayar river compared to the road bridge over it. Since then, this was the first time the river had swollen up to a particularly high point, apparently.

Anyway, the monsoonal experience was unique because of Chennai's stupendously ineffective drainage system. Apart from the fact that the capacity of the underwater drainage and sewerage system is quite simply inadequate for the Indian monsoon, there is also a supplemental system of uncovered roadside drains which have limited access points into the main drainage system. Now anyone who has been in India knows that the surface drains are full of all sorts of effluent and solid rubbish. It doesnt bother anyone (dont look at it, try not to notice the smell, avoid falling into it and its practically not there) under normal circumstances but when it rains, there is a problem!!!

Once the rains set in, all the entry points into the underground system become clogged with garbage. There is no excess capacitance built into the system, and even if there was, i wonder to what extent the drainage system would cope. Anyway, the result is that the streets get flooded!! The rain continues.......the water level increases. Transport grinds to a halt, the city follows. People get stranded in their homes. They sit at their windows watching the water level rise wondering when the water will creep into their houses. Electricity gets cut (there is a risk of electrocution in low lying homes which get flooded and water gets into power points). Mosquitoes are going to have a field day (only once the rains stop though).

This happened on three occasions to me. Twice i was stuck at my aunty's apartment, once at my grandparents'. My grandparents' block is built on a raised concrete platform so there is no risk of flooding except during a severe unheralded deluge. But the houses all round were low-lying and so got flooded promptly. Once the water level rises above the level of the toilet, retrograde flow starts happening. So the house gets filled with sewerage!! These unfortunate people had the unpleasant of cleaning their houses afterwards, not to mention, to sit through an entire day or more in such unsanitary conditions. Even more unfortunately, after the first flood, it happened again, and then again!!

My aunty's block of flats is not as raised as my grandparents', and she also lives on the ground floor. On one of the occasions at her place, we came close to being forced to move to my other aunty's unit on the first floor. The water had reached the inner walkway but just failed to make its way into the unit itself. We spent the hours looking out through the window at the neighbour's flooded yard, watching the water level creep up....

But there is a bright side to it all. They say that Chennai wont have any water shortages for another 12 months!!!!!!