During past three days intermittent rains have made the life of a city dweller unimaginably difficult as the lanes and by lanes in the residential areas are submerged under the rainwater. Not just this, the main roads too have turned into pools of water. In such a situation, calling Srinagar a city is trope. Rain brings the problem of poor drainage to the notice of the authorities, but once the weather improves they forget it and do nothing in this regard. There seems no accountability and becomes evident with every downpour.
Societies progress because of certain denominators and public health and Hygiene is the dominant one. The kind of societies which thinks to achieve the zenith of literature must bear in mind the very fact that unless and until basic health and hygiene is provided to all citizens the societies can not progress by any degree.
Coming to Kashmir, and precisely, to its summer capital the overflowing drains tell a completely different tale. The moment it rains now, feelings like breaches, floods and water-logging instantly surface – and thus, instill a ‘weather trauma’ in public.
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In a sublime valley how come there be a city with such a pathetic drainage system. Most of the drains here have been choking for the last two years. No major drainage projects have been undertaken by the authorities concerned to end the woes of people.
The drainage system in Srinagar was worst hit during the floods in September 2014 as most of the sewers choked. The overflowing drains at the Regal chowk, MA Road, old city, TRC and many other parts have added to the difficulties of commuters. The problem needs a permanent solution as most of the areas in Srinagar are low lying, therefore there should be a proper system in place.
The most pathetic of all things is that there is an abject absence of public lavatories. The government is practically telling its citizens to hold it in as they tread the boulevards of city. The existing public lavatories cut a sorry figure and are unclean, smell of stale urine and are in such conspicuous places that it is hard to find them in the first place. Thousands of people swoop down on Srinagar for shopping purposes. Their favourite place being Lal Chowk and periphery which is notorious for the lack of public lavatories.
The civic agencies have turned a deaf ear to repeat pleases from certain citizen to remove the accumulated garbage. One simple question that comes to mind is that why can’t government coordinate different departments? In this era of speedy communication why is it difficult to get things done in a coordinated manner? However all is not lost, and we should make concern efforts to clean our cities and make it a safe place to live in forever’s. We hope that our concern is conveyed.
