Drainage woes demand urgent fix

Once again, a few hours of rainfall have brought Srinagar’s roads to a standstill. Waterlogging, flooded streets, stranded vehicles and pedestrians wading through filthy water, these scenes have become all too familiar for the city’s residents. Despite repeated public outcry, the drainage system in Srinagar remains grossly inadequate, exposing serious governance lapses and planning failures. What is most troubling is the predictability of this chaos. This isn’t a rare or extreme event; even moderate rainfall routinely overwhelms the city’s drainage network. Clearly, the problem is not the rain, but a deep fault in urban infrastructure, neglected for far too long. For a city that aspires to modernize and develop, such recurring civic failures are unacceptable. Srinagar’s topography and monsoon pattern are well-known. Yet, there has been little sign of systemic upgrades to the drainage system, only temporary patchwork and reactive measures that fall apart with the next downpour. As a result, the people are being pushed to face hardships. The administration must now move beyond token statements and take concrete, time-bound action to address this civic failure. This includes comprehensive cleaning and desilting of existing drains, Modernization of the drainage network with proper capacity and slope, rainwater harvesting and stormwater management systems in key areas, strict monitoring of construction activity to prevent illegal encroachments over drains and real-time response units to manage urban flooding and assist commuters. Urban resilience is not just about big projects and flyovers; it’s about ensuring that the city works, even when it rains. It’s time the government stops treating waterlogging as an unavoidable inconvenience. It is a preventable failure and the people of Srinagar deserve better.