Civic body to get flooding alert three days in advance
NEW SYSTEM iflows-mumbai to issue 12-hour advance warnings for areas prone to flooding
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will now be aware of the possible extent of flooding in Mumbai three days prior to heavy rain events while 12-hour advance warnings will be issued for areas susceptible to flooding across all 24 wards this monsoon.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday inaugurated the integrated flood warning system for Mumbai (iflows-mumbai), the second one for any urban city in the country so far after Chennai, jointly conceived by various departments of the ministry of earth sciences (MOES) and BMC.
Apart from forecasting location-specific rainfall in each ward, the system will allow the civic body to issue alerts for citizens and also evacuate people from low-lying areas in advance before heavy rain events occur.
“This warning system is a gift (vardaan) to the people of Mumbai. As we deal with a health crisis as well as the recent Cyclone Nisarga, both blood and flood management are equally important,” said Thackeray, adding, “Over the past 15 years (20052020), Mumbai has managed to augment its pumping stations to drain water from low lying areas. The newly launched system will further enhance our efforts to address flooding concerns.”
BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said early information on flood-prone areas would allow swift diversion of public transport and give BMC enough time to implement mitigation measures. “We are launching the project before the monsoon sets in over Mumbai. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will be providing us with heavy rain warnings three days in advance. The system was developed based on classified and non-classified ward-wise information, elevation levels etc provided by BMC to IMD,” said Chahal.
As of February 2020, 204 of 273 sites prone to waterlogging were attended to by BMC while remaining 69 sites continue to be unattended due to less manpower owing to Covid-19 pandemic, said a senior official from BMC’S storm water drains department.
“On the day of flooding, we will be getting near real-time information and six-hour warning updates from IMD, giving us enough time to move our machinery towards affected areas. This can be a model for the rest of the country and will help make Mumbai become more resilient,” said Chahal.
The city faced two major flooding events over the past 15 years. On August 29, 2017, Mumbai witnessed downpour of 315.8 mm rain in a span of just 12 hours that battered the city leading to suspended transport operations and severe waterlogging. It was even worse on July 26, 2005 when torrential showers led to a deluge that killed over 1,000 people when