PICTURE SPEAK

PICKING UP THE PIECES: The rains resulted in huge loss of property

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is finding it difficult to sleep these days because he is caught between angry Mumbaikars on the one hand and a slothful state machinery on the other. Unlike thousands of Mumbaikars who are still coping with the after-effects of the deluge of July 26, the chief minister hasn't been a victim of the chaos that the average person has gone through in the past week, with power cuts and waterlogging. The choice Deshmukh has to make after Terrible Tuesday is to either continue to appease his political masters and further contribute to Mumbai's decline or fight for a better city by improving civic amenities. The tragedy that left over a thousand people dead in the state-with about 410 casualties in Mumbai alone-tens of thousands homeless and deprived people of basic amenities like food, water and power for days, highlighted the total apathy of the state administration. Worse, it showed the country's financial capital is in reality a pauper. For none of the Rs 58,000 crore that Mumbai contributes to the national exchequer annually through personal and corporate taxes is actually used for its own good. That an investment of Rs 1,200 crore to upgrade the city's drainage system-which predates India's Independence-would have equipped Mumbai for the calamity is just one party of the story. While a heavy downpour of blame games and passing-the-buck politics followed the crisis, there are some hard lessons to be learnt. India Today highlights what really went wrong and why it went wrong.

MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN

PICTURE SPEAK

DISASTER MISMANAGEMENT: Deshmukh was busy with meetings

The deluge in Mumbai showed that successive state governments have been merely managing chaos and little or no thought has gone into upgrading the city. While the amount of rainfall was unprecedented, the city could have been better prepared for the eventuality if adequate investments were made in forecasting technology, disaster management systems and modernising civic amenities like drainage systems. What is appalling is that India's financial capital has no money to manage itself.

In 1991, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) prepared a report on the state of Mumbai's roads. The Brimstowad Report, as it was named, sought an investment of Rs 700 crore to augment the drainage capacity of the antiquated drains from 2.5 cm of water per hour to 5 cm per hour. Like many other reports, this one was given a quiet burial. About five years ago, the BMC involved the state government and sought the required funds, which had risen to Rs 1,200 crore in eight years, to implement the plan. The matter was referred to the Centre by the state government, seeking aid from multilateral agencies. But the hitch, according to state Chief Secretary R.M. Premkumar, is that rather than clearing assistance based on the merit of the project, multilateral agencies link funding to larger reforms like property taxation, urban land ceiling and rent reforms. So till such time a multilateral agency gives the city the necessary aid, no developmental project can take off.

Meanwhile, the BMC pleads helplessness as its revenues of Rs 5,000 crore are not enough to fund projects and mainly goes into debt servicing and paying salaries. Johnny Joseph, commissioner of BMC, says, "The only support we get from the state government is in the form of paying some salaries. We don't get any funds for projects from the state government."

ZERO DISASTER PLANNING

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THAT SINKING FEELING: Police officers survey the disaster by boat

What July 26 highlighted was the total lack of preparedness and slow reaction by the state machinery to the crisis. While the chief minister and top state officials may have held meetings, practically nothing was done on the ground to alleviate the condition of the common man on the street. An advisory issued by the Mantralaya late in the afternoon, telling people to head home early, turned out to be a grave miscalculation as chaos gripped the streets. Even as radio and TV channels predicted there would be more rainfall in the following 48 hours, the state machinery did not use the media to broadcast any disaster management plans.

After the Latur earthquake in September 1993, the state government planned to set up a disaster management committee. But it was never actually formed. "We did not think it would come to this," says Premkumar while Deshmukh takes refuge in brave optimism: "Such a situation should not arise in the future." The fact that neither the state government nor the BMC is equipped to look after Mumbai adds weight to the argument that Mumbai needs a single entity that would look after the needs and interests of the city so that it is not forced to approach agencies with a begging bowl to fund developmental projects.

POWER PARALYSIS

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RELIEF CHAIN: Cartons of bottled drinking water being distributed

The rainwater claimed many other casualties, including power and telecom services, which aggravated the situation. Reliance Energy Limited (REL), the main power distribution company in Mumbai, earned the ire of the state Government for failing to restore power in the city. It has been a case of passing the buck with REL claiming the authorities had asked it to cut power supply to avert accidents and the chief minister and chief secretary hotly denying this. While power distribution companies claim that power could not be restored as transformers were submerged, the Government claims it is the responsibility of the companies to clear the water and not wait for it to recede. Addressing the media last week, Anil Ambani, chairman, REL, apologised for the inconvenience caused to the company's customers. Says Ambani: "The events of the past two weeks were neither predicted nor was there any preparation by our city." While 34,000 homes remained without power till August 3, REL has announced a Rs 100 crore disaster management fund to cope with natural calamities in future.

SKEWED DEVELOPMENT

INTERVIEW | VILASRAO DESHMUKH

"We need a solution that is above politics" Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh spoke to Associate Editor Malini Bhupta on the deluge. Excerpts: Q. Was the crisis avoidable? A. The highest ever average rainfall Mumbai has recorded over 24 hours was 370 mm. But on July 26 it received 944 mm in 12 hours. The city's drainage system is old and needs to be upgraded. Also, considering the rate at which the population is growing, one has to take a logistic view of the whole situation. Mumbai needs planned development as it cannot cope with the 350 families that come into the city every day. We have to find a solution that is above politics. Q. Why was power supply not restored days after the deluge? A. Electricity in almost all areas was restored by Tata Power and MSEB within 24 hours. The exceptions were Kalina and Kurla where the transformers were submerged and cables affected. Q. What have you learnt from this calamity? A. I admit we need to learn from it. My intention is to give Mumbai its due and bring it up to the standards expected by the people. We need to have a framework for development and stick to it. Q. Was the disaster management plan in action when Mumbai was flooded? A. The disaster management plan was conceived after the Latur earthquake but it was not activated. However, now it is legal and a formal committee has been appointed. Q. What about the person asked to head the committee, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) A.P. Singh, who was holidaying in Spain during the deluge? A. He was only one of the coordinators, not the head of the committee.

For a city which takes in 350 families every day, it is an understatement that the pace of development has not matched the burgeoning population. Environmentalists says this was a calamity waiting to happen considering the gross environmental violations in Mumbai. Says Rishi Aggarwal, joint secretary, Mangrove Society of India (Mumbai Chapter): "In the past five years, approximately 7,000 acres of mangroves and swamps have been illegally reclaimed. About 300 acres have been reclaimed in the Versova-Malad belt alone." Builders flouted coastal regulatory zones rules and constructed structures within 500 m of the high tide line. "This has been done illegally in collaboration with the BMC," alleges Aggarwal. "The indiscriminate cutting down of mangroves aggravates the situation during a flood as low-lying areas are exposed to sea water."

THE WHITHER DEPARTMENT

On Terrible Tuesday, the weather report issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for Mumbai was a bland "Heavy to rather heavy rainfall". The reports for the subsequent days were no different. It prompted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who visited Mumbai following the deluge, to advise the state to upgrade its weather forecasting technology immediately. The IMD feels that it is unfair to blame the department as its responsibility is to provide indicative predictions and not accurate locational predictions. Says Dr N. Jayanthi, deputy director-general of IMD (weather forecasting): "Our model is a synoptic model. To make accurate locational predictions we need a good network and Doppler weather radar which calls for a lot of investment."

While the problems are aplenty, the immediate task, as Deshmukh says, is to "find a solution that is above politics". But that is just half the job, implementing it is the tougher part.

-with Aditi Pai

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