Some time back I wrote about the floods and as a cue - On Monday 5th September most parts of Bengaluru was flooded including our basement. Even today there were videos of apartments in Yamlur. The water levels inside the apartment complex was so high that only a tractor could go in. Each villa here costs 8 cr. In the video you could see Lexus, Mercedes and other high end cars completely submerged.
The rumour is that these apartments were built on top of a storm water drain which blocked the passage of water. There are only 2 kinds of people who can afford a 8 Cr villa - either a business man or a C-Suite professional. I can pardon the businessman for not being knowledgeable or he may have bought for investment. But the other category - did they not know about the possibility of rain water - I doubt because most of them would have pre-booked the apartment when the builder would have just shown the drawings & created a model flat.
In Faridabad Omaxe made us wait for 3 years from the expected date of possession & after that there was no water as the ground water had receded so all water was supplied only through tankers. There are multiple other cases where the builders are primarily responsible but in all the tweets & news nobody is complaining about them. Of course the govt - builder nexus is well known, since they are the final authority they should audit and question these builders even before they start construction.
Tomorrow or the day after, a huge mass of people will rise and start going back to the office, will they remember the experience, and how will they bring in change? I have been asking that question to myself - having decided to be in sustainability space, as I start reading about the Pakistan Floods, Bangalore Floods & earthquake in China & there may be smaller incidents which go undocumented like bleaching of corals or the disappearing antarctic ice - news which appear in one corner of a website and since we are not affected by it, many of us will ignore.
The more you read you get daunted by the challenge we face. But there are people with twinkle in their eyes & deep knowledge:
The below article is written by an water expert on what can be done:
Meet the water warriors. These people I salute.
https://campaign.thebetterindia.com/indiaswaterwarrior/
In sandman when dream fights hell, it’s an imaginary game which is played out and in the last round dream is covered by darkness something like black hole and for a moment hell thinks she will win, but dream breaks the spell by a 4 letter word HOPE - which is what keeps the humanity going after the floods, after the rains, earthquake or wars.
See it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya-wSF-8w-E - probably one of the best sequences in Sandman.
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