THIS is a continuous story -- of the lessons we, the Nagpurians, steadfastly refuse to learn. That fateful night of September 23 in 2023, the city saw torrential rains and spilling over of its waterways and waterbodies. The next morning, the city was aghast to notice that as many as ten thousand houses were severely damaged in the floods. On the fateful noon-to-afternoon-to evening of July 28, 2026 (Tuesday), the city got lashed by torrential rains -- 180 mms in just a few hours -- and found itself in the shambles. Of course, such experience is an annual event in the city. Terrible rains lash the city. The people somehow navigate through roads that turn into rivers. Cars vanish under the water. Students from schools have to be evacuated to safety. Life stands disrupted beyond measure. At least for a few hours, the city gives an impression that it resembles Hell on Earth. Despite such repeated experiences, we, the Nagpurians, have refused to learn right lessons.

 

That is so because we have not asked ourselves right questions. True, these questions need to be asked of the authorities that are in charge of civic affairs, civic engineering -- and those question need to be asked by the common people. Frankly, the common people innocently trust the civic authorities -- expecting them to have done their respective duties and tasks diligently and devotedly. Unfortunately, that trust has often stood betrayed. This, thus, is the story of the trust betrayed -- of a terrible trust deficit, between the people and the civic authorities. The first question that we must ask is whether the departments handling drainage system that can take huge quantities of water have done their job properly. In other words, what was the volume of water in the engineers’ mind when they designed the drainage system -- how many millimeters of rains per hour ?

 

On July 28, 2026, the city received as many as 180 mms of rains in just three hours -- that is 60 mms per hour. Is the city’s drainage system designed to take in such a massive volume of water ? Engineering science often insist upon what is known as “Design Basis Report” -- that decides the parameters of design of a particular utility (say, drainage in an area). Do the civic authorities in Nagpur follow the norm to the hilt ? Do they really design our drainage system to take in that kind of water that a deluge would bring in ? The loosefooter went around some areas of the city’s South-West (Assembly segment) where the two Somalwar (Nikalas and Khamla) Schools are located. Those were the institutions from where the students and the teachers had to be evacuated with the help of ropes. The entire area is in the throes of a terribly delayed project of road-construction.

 

Slush that Tuesday rains left behind is all over the place. Thanks to the road work and several other factors, the rainwater formed a massive lake-like condition in the area -- making it impossible for normal movement of the students out of the schools. Apparently, there was no way the massive quantities of rainwater could go away through the drainage system or the nearby canal. The result was for all to see. Such experiences often hit the city on an annual basis. The city sees the same sights every year -- with no relief coming by way of smart engineering and smarter handling of the challenge. Yet, we refuse to learn right lessons. For years, ‘The Hitavada’ has been campaigning for scientific approach to civic issues. It has produced reports and features and pictures of how lethargic and sluggish the civic authorities are in handling the challenges the city confronts on a regular basis. Yet, the civic authorities -- and their political masters in the Union and State Governments -- just shrug their shoulders, brand ‘The Hitavada’ anti-development, pass dirty jokes among themselves about alertness of ‘The Hitavada’ on public issues, and ... ! They, thus, present a classic case of how a city refuses to learn right lessons despite repeated bad experiences. And as they do that, the civic authorities insult the collective sentiment of 35-lakh-plus Nagpurians. n