Sponge City – Can India make it possible ?

Let come monsoon, Indian TV are full of criticism of failed drainage system and water logging in almost all the major cities in India. Every year Municipal corporations make tall claims that we are ready to receive heavy rain as lot of improvements are done for smooth flow of rain water this year , but in a day or two of heavy rains all claim fall short and city become a pond.

 India has a bad record to manage rainwater in most of the cities. There are 4,000 City/town In India , 300 town have population more than 100,000 . India is developing 100 smart cities by upgrading infrastructure. I doubt any of the smart city has a capacity to receive heavy rains. Most of the town face flood type situation during rainy seasons.

Heavy monsoon in any city will bring chaos to daily life as its road and streets get flooded. Life in any big city like Mumbai , Bengaluru ,  Kolkata , Kochi , Gurugram , Delhi etc gets standstill if a heavy shower happen in any single day. Road get submerged in water , sewer get choked , water drains get clogged and city become a lake and water logging everywhere. Average Annual rainfall in India is 98 cm . Rainfall in Northeast and Western Ghat is 400 cm. But how to handle this much rain fall ?

Why Indian cities can not handle rain

Following are the reasons why flooding happen in the big cities –

1. Most of the city area is covered with roads , Footpath , walkway  and concrete paving – where rain water will go?
2. This leave no margin for rain water to percolate to ground below thus start accumulating, water logging and flood the area .
3. City have ancient drainage network with dumped garbage in open channel.
4. Rain water surface drain channels are either not there or are of inadequate size to handle continuous heavy rain .
5. Storm water pipe network is not provided or is chocked with obstruction.
6. Tree cover in the city is very poor . Tree help rain water to absorb to ground below.
7. No green zone area in the town   
8. No park with greens , pond and lake to absorb rainfall water to ground
9. Illegal construction on water drainage channels
10. Bad urban planning

A Sponge City –

How to handle flooding of cities due to excessive rain is a task for the govt. and Municipal corporation.  This problem of flooding of cities is worldwide and some the countries have taken scientific measure to tackle it .  China , New-Zealand  , Canada and few European countries are investing in constructing of SPONGE cities. Sponge city is a unban planning programme where the city is designed in a such a way that any excessive rainwater get absorbed below ground in scientific way like a Sponge and city stay floodless despite heavy rain. China has faced heavy floods in major cities recently. China is construction 30 Sponge cities to tackle flooding is urban area wherein 70% of rainwater will be managed by Sponge technique. Following features are implemented in city planning to make it a SPONGE City –

What is needed for a sponge City-

a) Improve surface drainage channel slopes

b) Install percolation wells at low lying area

c) Construct Underground water tank to retain surplus rain water

d) Add more parks with green area in the city

e) Add lakes and Ponds in the cities and parks

f) Plant maximum number of trees in the city

g)  Add forest zone.

h) Use water absorbing concrete for footpath and pavements.

i) Separate sewer line from storm water

j) Construct Roof top garden / Green Roof

k) Grow many plants inside your house compound and entrance

Let Indian cities stay clean and beautiful during rainy seasons. We as citizen should do everything possible to make the city green wherein rain water get absorbed to the earth and do not flow in the streets. Let’s start doing something today to protect our city.