Neck Deep, Waist Deep or Knee Deep?

A century of planning, scores of planners, millions already in drains and still we don’t have a functional drain in any Indian city. Even during normal monsoons, all the cities in India become a virtual pool. Accepted that many drainage lines cannot take up the amount of gallons of water that rain showers and it may even be a century old infrasructure. But who stopped the civic authorities to change that? Is there any road in India that any civic authorites have shown mercy to? But still we hear the same justifications, we suffer the same agony. Earlier, there were low lying(read level) areas where people used buckets to propel water out of their homes. Now even in the so called high level areas, large industrial pumps are used. Where do the civic authorities expect these natural waters to go? Are they praying for a drought so that their drains remain dry and clean? There was a big talk of water recharging and its implementation went down the drains in the same pace it came up. Who really cares to recharge our underground water reserves from these waters? Flooding is not new to the world. It happens even in Shanghai, New York or London. But it is a rare phenomenon there where as it is a regular feature in our cities. During the good old days of monsoon people used to ask each other if there was any water around to take a walk and enjoy the rains. Now the question is very simple and straight forward. Neck deep, waist deep or knee deep? How deep are you? ba