NEW DELHI: A new national survey shows that over half of the city, its dwellers suffer due to water logging on streets. Citizens end up wasting time, energy and productivity.
The waterlogging on streets leads to loss of working hours, damage of assets, increased traffic time and accidents. The survey also reveals that urban landscapes, consisting of all tiers of cities across the country, face a greater magnitude of problems of waterlogging and flooding.
It is a typical scene of waterlogging in major cities after a spell of heavy downpours. Videos of heavy downpours and water logging keep floating all across social media platforms. But the waterlogging and flooding of urban landscapes is beyond the major cities. It is a feature of almost every tiered city.
The survey, conducted by India’s leading Community Social Media platform, LocalCircles, showed that around 94 per cent citizens surveyed indicated that their city or districts get waterlogged during the monsoon season.
The community platform survey received over 22,000 responses from citizens located in 293 districts of India. The respondents consist of over two-thirds of men and the rest were women. However, around half of the respondents are from Tier-1 cities followed by, one-third from Tier-2 cities and the rest of them are followed by Tier-3&4 cities.
The expert cited reasons for waterlogging and flooding in urban landscapes are; increasing built-up areas, failure to make provision to collect runoff or let the soil absorb it, lack of stormwater management, and clogged drainages.
The most significant segment of the problem city dwellers face due to waterlogging is spending more time in traffic, followed by vehicle wear and tear-related costs, risk of accidents and loss of working hours.
According to survey data, 84% of respondents indicated that waterlogging results in their having to spend “much more time in traffic”; 68% indicated that it leads to “vehicle wear and tear and related costs”; 68% stated that it raises “risk of accidents”; 54% of respondents stated that it leads to “losing working hours/ productivity”.
It is not just the private vehicles that get damaged but also public property when buses get partially or fully submerged in water and road infrastructure damage.