Bhubaneswar, which was once was a beautiful city, has become a concrete jungle with its water sources depleted or getting choked and green cover depleting at a fast pace in the name of development.
Open space and trees have been used to the maximum to maximise commercial exploitation of land use. Even water sources like Daya West Canal has been squeezed by informal settlements, so do the natural drainage system and river Gangabati, the Ganga River of Bhubaneswar.
So much waterways getting chocked inside concrete jungle in name of development has actually made Bhubaneswar more vulnerable to effects of Climate Change. Unless Bhubaneswar adopts urban planning methods as a water sensitive city soon, it will not be able to escape from future disasters.
The government cannot continue with the “business as usual” attitude. There is a need for a paradigm shift in how things are done and look at other cities across the globe. With everyone responding to climate change, can Bhubaneswar remain blind to it?
There is no coordination between urban planners, developers, architects and the civic body etc, when it comes to development of the city. If one looks at how the town planning is done now, one wouldn’t be surprised to know that all the departments are working in silos — there is no communication among them and they end up endangering the city.
Due to this poor management of town planning, Bhubaneswar has turned a flood-prone city. COVID pandemic has taught the city to have more open space to prevent crowding. If it is not enough, the planners should wake up to choked drains and flooded roads after a downpour to create more open space to help divert excess rainwater.
As per the current trend all over the world, there is a need for water sensitive urban planning. It means that the city should be planned with consideration of creating spaces that can absorb excess water from the rain like a sponge. When there is more open space, it will minimise the amount of tarmac that is blocking the water from being absorbed by the ground. It worked in the past when Bhubaneswar used to have more such space.
Similarly, the civic administration can consider other methods of storm water management such as canal systems which can receive the extra water.
Several studies indicate that Bhubaneswar is surrounded by either rivers or natural streams. In true sense, it is a city with many waterfronts. They are either near river Gangabati or the streams.
But, if city planners fail to acknowledge this, they would not be able to build a city where there is a way that can turn the water around. Though there are a lot of solutions, those needs right approach and mindset to be implemented.
The government has huge challenges to make concerted efforts to prevent the city from future flash floods instead of resorting to the current haphazard development that does not take the disaster into account. The present town planning is like “island planning”, where everyone has his own “island” to manage as if surrounding areas do not matter.
By supporting green infrastructure and intelligent use of water, Bhubaneswar can have cool urban areas and reduce the impact of heatwaves and climate change. Integrated water management is one way of increasing a city’s resilience to the effects of climate change and ensuring ongoing survival of green spaces in Bhubaneswar.
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