By Dhana Thapa

Kathmandu had been seeing a comparatively weak Monsoon this year. But when everyone thought heavy downpours for this year were over, the rains came down with a vengeance on Sunday and then also on Monday night.

Many suburban neighbourhoods in the City faced trouble with the water finding no outlet. Places like Samakhusi, Gairidhara, Maitidevi and Kumari Pati among others, saw rain water getting clogged at low placed areas and it was a common sight to see people wading through the murky waters.

There were even reports of several houses collapsing in Samakhusi and Gairidhara. Both fire brigade and police personnel could be seen pitching in to pump water away from homes which had been flooded.

But it was not that it had rained continuously for days, like it does during the Monsoon season. It rained only for about 12 hours or so on Sunday and even less on Monday. This should not have caused so much havoc.

However, the water clogging problem, is like many other ills the City is seeing in recent times, it is the manifestation of unplanned urbanisation.

Pollution, garbage, drinking water shortage and even the traffic jams, they are occurring because the planners in the government did not show any vision when there was still time.

While the bureaucrats and the city fathers erred drastically during the autocratic panchayat period, things never changed for the better when directly elected officials took over after the establishment of democracy.

Now with the NC running the government, a Mayor belonging to a party which does not have even a single elected MP (ML) is in office and he has as his Deputy a person who is with the main opposition party the CPN (UML),the arch enemy of the ML Things at Kathmandu’s City Hall couldn’t have been worse.

There are reports that the Local Development Ministry does not cooperate with the Mayor. Then there are also reports of how the Mayor and his Deputy do not even speak with each other. So it is no wonder that the chronic problems of Kathmandu are getting worse and no solutions seem in sight.

However to get back to the problem of flooding in different parts of the City because of the rains, the blame also goes to none other than those who have built houses without proper planning. For example in Samakhusi, not only have many people encroached very dangerously near the small rivulet that runs through the neighborhood, but many have also completely halted the traditional canals that crisscross the place.

Is it any wonder then, that many houses were flooded because the rain water could not find any outlet? The same holds true in other low lying places like Maitidevi and Gairidhara too.

It sends a shiver down one’s spine to think what might have happened if the present rains had come when the City was full of unpicked garbage? If nothing, at least the City would have turned into a dirty cauldron where viral infections or even epidemics could have struck with impunity.

Even though the waters have subsided   to a large extent, the sad part of this story is that the problems still exist and it could get worse next year or the year after that. Like they have learnt to live with problems like pollution and garbage, the residents of Kathmandu may now learn how to live in flood conditions during the heavy Monsoon period now and in the future.