Showing posts with label monsoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monsoon. Show all posts

Thursday, April 13, 2023

A drain runs through it

The Nandanam Canal is one of the minor storm-water drainways of Chennai city. The total length of these storm-water drains is about 50 km; the Nandanam Canal probably contributes about 2 km to that. In recent years, its length has been slightly truncated because the Chennai Metro diverted a part of it to make way for the underground passage between Saidapet and Nandanam stations. 

We must remember that about a century ago, the entire west side of Mount Road from Anna Flyover to Maraimalai Adigalar Bridge was a large waterbody; so large that the only name they could give it was the "Long Tank". When that was filled up to accommodate Madras' growing need for space, someone forgot to inform the rain Gods of this change of plan. It should therefore be no wonder that the T.Nagar area floods at the slightest of rains. 

This drain is part of a larger system intended to take away some of the floodwaters to the Adyar river. Because they remain dry for the better part of the year, storm-water drains such as these have become filled with effluents and even sewage from residential colonies along their banks.  It certainly cannot be part of anyone's ideal of childhood memories, they way the Nandanam Canal currently is, but it has potential; if only it could be cleaned up, with some spots for children to play along its way, then maybe it will be idyllic, too!


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Stop, rain?

Somehow, the rains this year seem to be following a different drummer. Apart from one day last week, when it poured over the city throughout the day, the rains have been behaving more like Singapore than anything else. Sharp showers, pouring down intensely for fifteen minutes, followed by bright sunshine. Makes it rather schizophrenic, at times.

But this was last week. Skies greyer than what they said and the drizzle kept at it right through. Bad enough for the motorcyclists to have to ride in the rain, but worse when they have to stop for the lights. And at the Tidel Park signal, that's a long - and wet - wait!




Monday, October 19, 2009

River mouth

At its northern end, just after the MGR and the Anna Memorials, the mouth of the Cooum marks the 'public' limit of the Marina Beach. Not that the public flock to see the river meeting the Bay of Bengal. It is rather dull, but that is only to be expected. The Cooum, at the end of its 65 km run, is weighed down by all the muck that has been poured into it (mostly along its last 16 km within Chennai city) and is barely moving along, more sludge than water.

For maybe just a couple of days in the year, the waters of the Cooum would be racing to the Bay of Bengal. That happens when (and if) the storm water drains do their job during the monsoons. There are 16 canals which collect the runoff from those drains and pour it into the Cooum (and to the other waterways of Chennai - the Adayar River and the Otteri Nullah), en route to the Bay of Bengal. Works well in theory; but with Chennai being quite a flat city, any blockage of the drains will cause the city to flood up.

One of the largest potential blockage points has been the silting - and sedimenting - of the Cooum's mouth. Though it is sometimes cleared up during the monsoon by the sea, most of the time, the waves deposit sediments which clog up the mouth. October is normally the month when the authorities clear up the mouth - and other passages. Let's hope they do it well enough for us to have a flood-less monsoon!


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Almost evergreen

It is such a common sight in Chennai; the raintree has been used to line so many roads in the city, that it comes as a surprise to know it is not native to the region - indeed, it is not native to India, having been brought from Central / South America. From the forests of Mexico, Peru and Brazil, this tree has travelled to all the tropical regions of the world, with each region bestowing it a name (even its scientific name is in some confusion: it is called both Albizia saman as well as Samanea saman): monkey-pod tree, 5-o'clock tree, sleepy-faced tree, french tamarind... but the name 'raintree' was apparently coined in India.



Why 'raintree'? Again, there are several explanations, so take your pick. One, that the tree is host to a species of cicada, and their honey-dew like discharge fall like rain. The tree shuts its leaves when the skies go dark; during the monsoons, therefore, the raindrops fall through to the ground below - that's another explanation for its name. It is unique because most large trees of similar size provide shelter from the rain. The saman does not do so, despite being a contender for 'large tree' awards. It is an uncommon occurance for its leaf-faces to be splattered with rain - this one just got a little late in closing!



Hitachi has used one of the largest raintrees - on the Hawaiian island of Oafu - as part of its corporate identity since the early 1970s and in 2007, agreed to pay $ 4 million over the next 10 years for continued maintenance of that tree. That's indeed a lot of green!






Thursday, September 3, 2009

Deserted playgrounds

It is that time of the year again, when all outdoor sports are curtailed. With rains going off and on during the week, sports practice sessions have been cancelled and kids are probably spinning off their energy into other things. Though this school looks deserted, it is only because all the kids are in classes; despite having a multi-purpose playground, there is no enthusiasm to kick or to spike a ball - maybe it is just that it is too early in the day to get wet!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Summer showers...

...are back!

Sharp, concentrated but thankfully very brief, these showers are a by-product of the South West monsoon. They bring down the temperature, hold up everyone on the streets; if you're wise you will not leave the strorefront you're holed up in. Chennai residents will know these showers last only a few minutes so it is worth waiting it out rather than get drenched and look foolish for the rest of the day.

There're still a couple of months to go before Chennai's monsoon sets in, but any Chennai resident will be glad to have showers of this kind every day - the heat is still ruling at fairly high levels!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Nisha and her sister

I think it began last year, this convention of naming the cyclones. Now they're more familiar, but no less troublesome for that. Water everywhere, of course. It's been a really wet week. Nisha hit this morning. Her sister is lying in wait. Hopefully the conference will not be flooded out!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Flash flood

If you live in Chennai, you'll understand that flash-flood is not a phenomenon that is always associated with rushing water. In fact, Chennai could well be the tipping point for a definition for a new kind of flood, one that happens far sooner than the 6-hour buildup time that characterises a flash-flood. These floods in Chennai happen within 6 minutes from the start of a sustained burst of rain. With most of Chennai being flat, water rushes to every little scrap of land that is even slightly lower than its surroundings. Those include road shoulders, typically; when these shoulders are filled with water, it naturally narrows the drivable width of the road.

All this is fine. With the conference less than a week away, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the sun will be shining all through the later part of the next week!


Friday, November 21, 2008

Prescient salesman

Maybe not all that prescient, for the downpour came about 24 hours after I took this photograph last evening. He was very eye catching, with his white clothes allowing the colours of his umbrellas to preen themselves for the passers-by. Was there some thought behind his dressing for the evening? Or was it just that he picked whatever clothes came to hand? I'd like to think that his costume was part of his overall sales strategy, for he seemed to be a very organized person; the way he has pushed his two wheeler up on to the pavement and the manner in which his stock is displayed besides it suggests thoughtfulness.

Even Sherlock Holmes might not have been able to figure out how he could hope to sell any umbrellas when the clouds have been staying away from Chennai for nearly two weeks now. This season's rainfall, at about 40 cm has been about 16% less than the norm. Rainfall for the year, too, has been lower by about the same proportion. If anyone had ignored all these bits of data and bought an umbrella from him yesterday, they'd surely have been telling people about their foresight when the skies opened this evening!


Saturday, October 25, 2008

Good place to be

If you're in Chennai.
If you have to be out driving.
If it is raining like a drop to fill buckets.
If the roads are flooded, or flooding fast.
Wouldn't you be glad,
That you're in one of these?

If there is a pothole.
If the cyclist skids into you.
If the auto behind you doesn't stop in time.
If the scampering goat leaps onto your bonnet.
Would you be glad,
That you're not in one of these?

If you can think of all the above
And treat those two imposters just the same
You certainly deserve to be in one of these!



If you think something sounds familiar, you're thinking about this!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Of wet chains and broken links

The Government of Sri Lanka is right now in the middle of one of its most sustained offensives against the LTTE in the past two decades. It appears that the Sri Lankan army has the upper hand currently and are pressing home their advantage. The fierce fighting in the island has forced many to cross the Palk Straits, bringing with them their tales of atrocities by the soldiers. Some of the more hardline Tamizh political parties have been quick to pounce on this as a cause - and the Tamil Nadu government decided to nullify that political advantage by throwing its weight behind the cause, too.

To 'highlight' the sufferings faced by people in Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north-eastern regions, a human chain was to be formed in Chennai, stretching through the city into the suburbs. It was scheduled for October 22, but the rains on Tuesday led the organizers to reschedule it for today. One can't blame them if they were in a self-congratulatory mood at 2 pm, about an hour before the chain was to form. But it certainly says something that in a matter of 15 minutes or so, the skies darkened up and let loose one of the most sustained spells of heavy rain that had large sections of the human chain break away; much of the rest had to move to the middle of the road, because the rainwater flowing along the road shoulders did not allow them to stay to a side.

Recipe for disaster? Of course! Traffic was completely paralyzed in many places; one driver estimated a traffic jam stretching for about 12 km through the city. I know that we managed to do about 3 km on Mount Road / Sardar Patel in an hour before we aborted our trip and turned back - just at the right time, thankfully. The return took us 7 minutes. The traffic behind this section of the human chain remained stationary for well over an hour!


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Clouds over the city

You may not be able to figure it out from the photo, but it is actually pouring down; well, maybe if you click on the picture, you may see some white streaks. You would dismiss it as being just another of those mild showers that make Chennai interesting. But today was special. Unlike those earlier this year, it was the real thing today. The Met department has officially announced that the North East monsoon has hit Chennai yesterday, within the range when it is supposed to: in fact, it is slightly on the earlier side. That's certainly good news, because Chennai depends on this season to provide it water to last through until the winds come down from the Himalayas over the Bay of Bengal the next year.

Somehow the monsoons are not as much fun as they used to be. With so much construction all over the city, water does not find its own level very easily; and when it does, it is in the middle of that road you want to walk across. Building traffic dividers across some of the bigger roads has stopped the free flow of water into the storm water drains or the canals that would empty them into the Bay of Bengal, eventually. The water stays, obeying the rules, to the side of the road that it has fallen on, doing no good to anyone, waiting for the next spell of sunshine to change it into mud, before evaporating away completely.

A couple of months ago, there was a report that nearly 4 million recharge structures were to be built to harvest the monsoon run-off waters. Surely Chennai city will need a significant proportion of those!