Flooding is a man-made disaster and a result of failed planning, said former municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Friday. Expressing concern on climate change impacts, Mehta called for meticulous planning and execution of projects in the city. “We must all realise that flooding is a planning disaster. It happens because somewhere your planning goes wrong or you did not correctly plan without realising what the flood level will be. Or you plan and somebody ensured that your plan is punctured. First and foremost, you have to realise that the planning has to be corrected,” said Mehta, the chairman of Maharera, at a consultative session on ‘Flood in Mumbai’ organized by BMC and WRI India. Mehta was municipal commissioner of BMC for four years before retiring as chief secretary of the state. The recently unveiled Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) has warned that Mumbai which has geographically challenging terrain will face extreme rainfalls and floodings. “Now that climate change is becoming a reality, we must look at planning well," he said. He also pointed at flawed execution of projects. “For example, to tackle flooding in the Hindmata area it was planned to lay a big storm water drain pipe till Britannia storm water outfall. After execution, of the work it was found that the slope of the pipeline was less. When you plan and execute, it has to be meticulous,” he added. On flooding, Mehta said, “Since it is man-made, it requires man-made solutions. There is always the dilemma of how much money the authority should spend. Because this disaster impacts poor people the most. For the rich, it is another holiday to have pakodas and chai.The poor fellow's hut is flooded, his wages are gone because he cannot go out.” Jairaj Phathak, also a former municipal commissioner, said there have to be steps to enhance and strengthen the capacity of drainage systems.
