Major cities across India fall prey to waterlogging during monsoon season, resulting in worrying loss of working hours and added cost of vehicle wear and tear to several citizens.
According to a survey by LocalCircles, 94% citizens surveyed indicated that their city or district gets waterlogged during the monsoon season, while 84% of those impacted by waterlogging indicate that it results in them spending much more time in traffic, while 64% said they end up losing working hours.
According to a press release, the national survey received over 22,000 responses from citizens located in 293 districts of India. Around 69% respondents were men and 31% were women. While 48% respondents were from tier 1 cities, 33% were from tier 2 and 19% respondents were from tier 3, 4 cities and rural districts.
“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,” the press release on the survey results said.
The survey asked the 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 waterlogging 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 them 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,” the survey report concluded.
“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,” it said.
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