Chennai's Periyar Nagar in Chief Minister MK Stalin's Kolathur constituency owing to 21 cm of heavy rain for three days after Sunday created the mess inside the house of Godwin Ebenezer who has shown rage after seeing the damage of ruined furnishing and furniture on his return home.
Although this has been a day-long annual ritual for years, he had to leave his house for three days in 2015 when floods struck the city. Now it's a repeat of it, he says.
“So far the governments haven't addressed any concerns. We hope at least the new government will do something for us. We are tax-paying citizens," he added.
Every year during the monsoon, knee-deep water in low-lying areas has nowhere to go. As a result, streets and roads get flooded as stormwater overload the drains, residents say.
The corporation is not much responsible for managing stormwater drains. “This requires a scientific solution. It's not rocket science. We can't bring back water bodies because of infrastructural development. Let's fix it,” Padma Prasad, another resident, says.
Funded by the Smart City project Rs 5,000 crores have been invested to build stormwater drains after the 2015 floods in the city however the Chief Minister M K Stalin blames the previous AIADMK regime for casting aside this matter while being in power for six years after the 2015 disaster.
He said, "Shoddy job and corruption are the reason for losses in T Nagar. We have done up to 60 per cent of the work in just six months. After the rainy season, we will set the rest of Chennai right and avert further loss.”
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The Chennai Corporation says stormwater drains are not designed for heavy rains, only for the average annual rains as extreme weather events become more frequent, the city needs to be redesigned with climate-resilient solutions.