When flood alerts don’t help Bengaluru's citizens

The city has a flood alert plan on paper, but on the ground, it is ineffective

Every rain brings shudders to Shakunthala, who has to deal with the flood that follows. Her home is in Cement Colony near J C Road, barely half a kilometre away from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) head office. The flood level sensors located close by inside the stormwater drain do nothing to help her deal with the routine waterlog and floods.

“If I had known about the rain and flood on Outer Ring Road that day, I would have chosen to work from home,” says Pallavi, an employee of a company on Outer Ring Road living in Nandini Layout. She had to struggle in the rain and hitch a ride back home on September 5. She is among the many who feel a flood prediction system would help the city manage floods.

Bengaluru does have a rain forecast system and flood alert system in place. While the rain forecast system is largely useful, the flood alert system covers floods from stormwater drains. However, it is limited by not covering the floods resulting from waterlogging, or where access to the drain network has been blocked.

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According to Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA), the alerts are useful to BBMP. “The civic authorities are utilising the flood alerts issued by KSNDMC, and preparedness measures are taken based on the severity of the forecast and the alerts received,” says a note shared by Manoj Rajan, Commissioner, KSDMA.

However, the ground reality is different. A senior official from BBMP told DH that no alert can help when there is a flood. “What can we do with the alerts? We have the list of areas vulnerable to flooding, so we already know where it usually floods.”

In 2013, the BBMP identified 1077 flood-prone areas and in 2020, 211 such areas were identified. “What can we do when water levels are rising? If there is any blockage in the area, we remove it to help water flow. Apart from this, there is not much we can do. The rescue and evacuation etc are the responsibility of the disaster management authority,” he adds.

Flood sensors in drains

As a result of a collaboration between the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Karnakata State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), the rain and flood alert system started taking shape in 2016. This network has 12 telemetric weather stations and 100 telemetric rain gauges across the city.

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The system includes the flood alert mechanism, which depends on 107 water level sensors installed in the 840-km-long stormwater drain stretch in BBMP limits. Officials say the sensors were installed in strategic locations based on a joint survey by the BBMP and KSNDMC.

The data from these stations and sensors are sent at an interval of 15 minutes to the KSNDMC’s server. According to KSNDMC, this is well-utilised by civic authorities.

“Location-specific dynamic alerts and early warnings about the rainfall and rising water levels in stormwater drains are shared with civic authorities to take necessary measures to reduce the impact of floods in the city,” says the KSDMA note.

KSNDMC says the alerts are shared with BBMP officials, police, BWSSB, BESCOM, forest wing and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) among others. The alerts are used by the SDRF, Civil Defence and National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) to manage flood situations.

The BBMP officials say they cannot do much about it. This is also because the sensors are placed only along the stormwater drains, while many areas where sensors are not installed, or roads where blockages exist also get flooded, with no alert possible.

However, many such areas feature in BBMP’s list of flood-vulnerable areas. Whether the BBMP acts on it is a million-dollar question.

Also Read | Citizens unaware of flood alert system

Knee-jerk reactions

Flood alerts are only a small part of disaster management. According to Karnataka State Disaster Management Plan 2021-22, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) play a major role in disaster management. This includes reducing the risk of flood by preparing vulnerability maps down to the ward level, supervising land use, estimating inundation levels and preparing for it and many tasks that involve risk reduction.

Despite its role being clear on paper, the BBMP lacks the vision to fix problems. Sources say that the BBMP helpline located in the head office does not even have a category called ‘flooding’ for people to lodge a complaint.

Flooding complaints are taken only in the zonal control rooms. For evacuation and rescue work BBMP depends on disaster management forces and Civil Defence teams. And it limits itself to knee-jerk reactions every time the city drowns in the deluge, missing the bigger picture.

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(With inputs from Pinky Chandran, independent researcher)

KSNDMC's alert systems The website (https://varunamitra.karnataka.gov.in) Helplines: 9243345433 and 080-22745232 Bengaluru Megha Sandesha mobile application Social media handles SMS alerts KSNDMC shares: High-Intensity Rain Alert (HIRA) and Heavy Rain Alert (HRA) through SMS to registered users. Information on live weather, rain forecast, safe routes, lightning, thunderstorm, live rainfall map, live inundation map, safety tips etc through Bengaluru Megha Sandesha mobile app 24-hour rainfall, current rainfall, forecast, flood-vulnerable areas etc on the website