Guwahati’s first rain

The first rain in Guwahati in 2026 in the past two days has definitely brought a lot of relief to the citizens, especially from the increasing dust and fast-deteriorating air quality. Simultaneously, however, the rains have caught the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) and Guwahati Metropolitan Development (GMDA) on the wrong foot. While the common people know that the first heavy shower always causes a lot of problems like waterlogging and flash floods, it is a pity that the departments which are responsible for the upkeep of the region’s premier metropolis failed to anticipate such a situation. The result was that people had a harrowing time as traffic came to a grinding halt because of choked drains leading to knee-deep water on many roads and localities. Guwahati’s problem of waterlogging and floods is nothing new. Also, the failure of the officers in GMC, GMDA, PWD and the Water Resource department to anticipate the situation arising out of a heavy downpour, as had happened last weekend, is not new. Though the prime reasons behind artificial floods in Guwahati are rapid urbanisation, inadequate infrastructure, ageing drains, earth cutting on hills leading to siltation and clogging of drains, etc., the concerned authorities, under no circumstance, can shirk responsibility or pass the blame to others. No wonder residents of various localities reeling under knee-deep dirty water were seen expressing their ire against the concerned authorities. Some have also questioned how the government had failed to find funds for addressing the drainage problems in various residential areas when I could find such huge sums for the construction of so many flyovers across Guwahati. Multiple government departments are involved in mitigating this disaster, with varying degrees of success, yet Guwahati’s life is coming to a standstill because of this flooding, and it is a recurring phenomenon. What is even more disgusting is that construction of crucial drains in several highly flood-affected areas is hardly halfway through, and this has happened because the works, which should have started in October or November, had actually begun much later. Another sad part of the story is that the elected representatives of the people of Guwahati, whether the hon’ble MLAs or the hon’ble municipal councillors, were not to be seen anywhere. With the State Assembly election schedule already announced, one cannot rule out the possibility of the city’s artificial flood problem becoming a poll issue.