Cyclone Michaung | A post-facto analysis of what MLAs think went wrong in their constituencies in and around Chennai.
The Hindu
The Hindu spoke to MLAs of constituencies across the city that witnessed heavy flooding, or where the flood waters drained quickly, in an attempt to understand what exactly went wrong and what the solutions are
As soon as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came to power in May 2021, many of its leaders promised that they would rebuild Chennai city’s infrastructure in a way that flooding due to incessant rains, reminiscent of the deluge in December 2015, would be a thing of the past.
Even during the next two monsoons, DMK supporters on social media were quick to point out the good work done by the party’s members of legislative assembly the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) in ensuring that the water doesn’t inundate the streets and roads as it happened during former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s regime in 2015.
Also read | Floods and a ‘preventive measure’ that needs review
In recent months, a lot of spotlight had been given to the ₹4,000 crore-worth (now contested) of storm water drains, which would put Chennai in good stead unlike the rains in December 2015. However, the torrential rains in the first week of December 2023 showed that the work on storm water drains, flooding and inundation for days clearly meant all was not well.
Many factors have been cited as reasons for floods in early December 2023. The Hindu spoke to MLAs of constituencies across the city that witnessed heavy flooding, or where the flood waters drained quickly, in an attempt to understand what exactly went wrong and what the solutions are.
The 2015 Chennai floods changed the image of T. Nagar as the city’s primary shopping district, exposing its pitiable infrastructure, which was unable to prevent free-flowing water ravaging the shops and flooding of nearby neighbourhoods such as West Mambalam were inundated with water for more than a week prompting people to come out and protest.
Eight years since, while many things have changed, flooding continues to remain a problem. To the State government’s credit, management of reservoirs prevented prolonged flooding of the roads in low lying areas, and flood waters clearaed on the main roads after the rains stopped, but flooding on the inner roads meant that resumption of power took longer.