58% Indians surveyed say their district gets badly water logged; Leads to increased time in traffic, lost working hours, more vehicle wear and tear and also accidents

July 07, 2023, New Delhi: One spell of heavy downpour and scenes of waterlogging were being witnessed in major cities everywhere across the country ranging from Gurugram to Mumbai and from Delhi to Ahmedabad. Most of these cities experienced traffic jams, many vehicles getting stuck on waterlogged roads and even cracks appearing on paved roads.

Unfortunately, despite the videos of the waterlogged being put up on social media by citizens and reporting by local papers, the administration in most of these cities hardly ever addresses the root of the problem, instead choosing to indulge in blame games. Increasing built-up areas, failure to make provision to collect runoff or let it be absorbed by the soil, lack of stormwater management, clogged drainages are among several reasons cited by experts for city roads and colonies getting flooded after a heavy downpour. It is not that civic authorities don’t know what needs to be done ahead of the monsoon season. Or why low lying areas, which serve as a water sink, should not be allowed to be built upon. But the apathy to do the right thing is missing. The result is huge water logging scenes as witnessed repeatedly in Gurugram, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and last year in Bengaluru.

To gauge the extent of the problem and how it impacts citizens, LocalCircles conducted a national survey which received over 22,000 responses from citizens located in 293 districts of India. 69% respondents were men while 31% respondents were women. 48% respondents were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2 and 19% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

94% of citizens surveyed indicated that their city/ district gets waterlogged during the monsoon season

The survey first sought to understand the magnitude of water logging in the country. It asked respondents “Based on experience of the past couple of years, does your city/ district get waterlogged during monsoon season?” The query received 11,229 responses with 94% of citizens surveyed indicating that their city/ district gets waterlogged during the monsoon season. Data shows that 58% suffer greatly as their city/ district gets affected “quite badly” and 36% indicated it is “somewhat affected”. However 3% of respondents indicated that the “drainage system in their city/ district is good and we do not get water logged” during monsoon season. In addition, 3% of respondents did not give a clear response.

84% of those impacted by waterlogging indicate that it results in they spending much more time in traffic while 64% said they end up losing working hours

The next question sought to know from citizens how water logging impacts them. It asked respondents, “Based on experience of the past couple of years, what are some of the issues you have faced due to waterlogging?” Over 11,000 responded to this query with most blaming water logging for having to spend more time in traffic jams, lost productivity, increased vehicle wear and tear and more accidents. Some among the respondents indicated more than one problem due to waterlogging. The biggest segment of 84% indicated that waterlogging results in their having to spend “much more time in traffic”; 68% indicated that it leads to “vehicle wear and tear and related costs”; 68% stated that it raises “risk of accidents”; 54% of respondents stated that it leads to “losing working hours/ productivity”; 16% indicated other issues not mentioned earlier and 4% of respondents gave no clear response.

In summary, much as India advocates fuel efficiency, it is clear that water logging on streets works against the interests of citizens who end up not only wasting time, energy and productivity, in addition getting stuck in a traffic jam results in fuel loss, faster wear and tear of vehicles and road infrastructure, accidents for the majority of the people. It is not just the private vehicles that get damaged but also public property when buses get partially or fully submerged in water. As the survey shows, 94% of citizens surveyed from across the country have witnessed this state of affairs in the cities or districts while 58% saying that their city/district gets waterlogged badly. It is a sorry state of affairs that despite having a separate Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Central Government and states boasting of urban planning and development departments, all the plans fail after a spell of rain and not necessarily a deluge or rainstorm. LocalCircles will be sharing this survey finding with the relevant stakeholders in the hope that more efforts will be made towards better planning and execution including fixing the responsibility.