The Corporation will set up ‘sponge parks‘ to help prevent streets from getting inundated.
What’s it about? The Corporation will set up 47 sponge parks to prevent the flooding of streets. These sponge parks will help carry water to the drains and help recharge the groundwater. The work order for five of these has been approved, and tenders will go out for the remaining 42 this month.
- It involves constructing mini ponds and trenches at parks which will carry water from the roads to the stormwater drains. They’ll be surrounded by a wall with fencing for safety.
- The Corporation will also install rainwater harvesting structures with well rings inside the ponds. There’ll also be tree plantations, lighting, and benches around the ponds.
Who said what? Manushi Jain, an expert in sponge parks, said these should go beyond flood mitigation and become a resilient infrastructure for the area. She also said there needs to be a lot of green cover. Another expert S. Janagarajan said most cities are adopting this technique to reduce flooding.