THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the monsoon season fast approaching, concerns are mounting over the progress of the pre-monsoon sanitation drives across the state capital. The delayed start of the initiatives, coupled with intensifying summer showers, is making Thiruvananthapuram city highly vulnerable to waterlogging.
The heavy rain that recently lashed the capital inundated many low-lying areas, particularly the Thampanoor and Chalai regions, highlighting the ineffectiveness of the pre-monsoon sanitation drives launched by various agencies, including the city corporation, public works department, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), and the irrigation department.
Though the cleaning drive is ongoing, the waste and silt removed from the stormwater drains are not being promptly cleared from the sites, exacerbating the situation. It has been over four days since the cleaning of the drainage network at Ponnara Sreedharan Park in Thampanoor was initiated by the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB). The excavated debris remains uncleared at the site, causing inconvenience to the public.
Former Thampanoor ward councillor C Harikumar said that the removed silt is seeping back into the drains. “The entire Thampanoor-East Fort area is under flood threat. The entire Chalai Market was inundated after the heavy rains a few days back. They are doing the pre-monsoon work after the arrival of summer showers. They don’t clear the debris, which flows back into the drain after every rain,” said Harikumar.
A KRFB official said that the debris will be removed immediately. “The cleaning activities are in the final stages, and we cannot remove the debris during the daytime because it’s a heavily congested part of the city. We couldn’t remove it last night due to the rains, but it will be cleared immediately,” said the official.
The drive was supposed to be launched in February before the summer showers. However, owing to the apathy of the authorities, the work was initiated in April. The civic body allotted Rs 1 lakh for each ward. “The density of the stormwater drains in the 50 wards in the city is high, and these wards require more funds. A sum of Rs 1 lakh is inadequate, and the civic body had promised to allocate more funds,” said P Padmakumar, a UDF councillor in the city corporation.
Chalai Market remains highly vulnerable due to the incomplete drainage construction undertaken by Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Ltd. Suresh V L, a trader at Chalai Market, said that the market and shops were inundated after the heavy rains. “Now it’s too late to launch the pre-monsoon drive, and the newly constructed drains are not interconnected with the old ones. The flooding issue will not be resolved without upgrading the main arterial road inside the market,” he pointed out.