Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, AUGUST 10
The road that leads to the state’s power centre – the state Secretariat, Assembly Secretariat, and most of the state’s department directorates – which was recently cut off due to a man-made disaster comes as a wakeup call to both the citizens and authorities alike.
The Secretariat Road has collapsed due to flooding of Sanuorü stream which passes under the road through five culverts.
Heavy cloudburst coupled with a case of lack of civic sense of the citizens and apathy of public mechanisms caused the flood-like situation as accumulation of garbage rampantly dumped in drains and huge build-up of sediments over the years had clogged all the five culverts. One house got completely submerged in the flooding on August 6 last.
Until this incident, floods on a hilly area were something that is hardly or never been heard of, and that too owing to irresponsible tackling of garbage.
The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) promptly swung into action and attempted to pump out the water, however, this proved futile due to continuous rainfall and the water level rose to approximately 50-55 feet overnight. Subsequently, the road had to be excavated to drain the water so as to curb extensive damage and the people living downstream had to evacuate their houses.
Speaking to Eastern Mirror earlier on Friday at the site, NSDMA secretary, T Ao who was supervising the operations has voiced serious concern on the need for proper education of the public and enforcement on civic sense/proper disposal of wastes.
While many people opined that the problem is the public, some have pointed out that the departments of Urban Development and Roads & Bridges are also to blame.
The minister in-charge for Roads & Bridges has reportedly proposed the construction of a permanent bridge over the stream, but as per engineers, such construction would take a couple of years, at the least.
This episode has not just disconnected the most important road in the state capital but it also cut off the main water supply pipeline to the state Secretariat. Sources from the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) have said that emergency stock is currently being used at the New Secretariat Complex, but they are apprehensive that the stock would not last long unless the people use the water economically. Refilling the stock tanks will be another problem as heavy vehicles are being restricted to ply the two alternative roads leading to the Secretariat due to the narrow size of the roads, they said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Kohima, Rovilatuo Mor, who is also the chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority, has said on Monday that the most dangerous stage is over but the culverts are yet to be opened. He said there is still some stagnation of water running about 10-15 feet deep and unless the culverts are opened, all the water could not be drained.
He informed that a temporary bridge for light vehicles will be constructed over the stream once the rainy season gets over, in the meantime, a team of engineers are getting organized to set up a temporary footbridge for pedestrians.
This indicates that the public, government employees, VIPs and VVIPs will be getting ample time to ponder over what went wrong along the Secretariat Road which runs over Sanuorü stream. Or will they just blame one another as they wait for restoration of the road?
