‘Electricity failure biggest challenge in disaster management for BMC’

A family sits outside their house at Charkop in Kandivli in October 2020 during the power failure. Pic/Anurag Ahire

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has considered electrical supply disruption as one of its biggest challenges during disaster management. The power outages of 8 hours in October 2020 in the city and disruption of electricity supply for weeks in Chiplun, Koyna or after the Kerala floods put a big question mark over the disaster preparation plan of the city, as all the operations have 100 per cent dependency on electricity. The director of the disaster management department of the BMC has also emphasised the issue of tracking people in the absence of mobile networks.

Power outages during extreme weather events like cyclones or heavy rains are common in rural areas. In the past few years the city has been facing issues of extreme events and though the city gets 24 by 7 power supply the issue of supply disruption poses a big challenge. Mahesh Narvekar, director of the Disaster Management Department said besides floods there are many other issues related to rain like cyclone, landslides, lightning, tree falls, electrocution, short circuit, buildings collapse, epidemics, even chemical hazard. The disaster management department deals with all of them.

The BMC has a state-of-the-art disaster management unit with connection to CCTVs, all equipped community centres, control room in every administrative ward. "We also have GIS based maps including flooding spots, dewatering pumps, temporary shelters, hospitals, Best depots for transport, etc. All the services are connected to infranet," said Narvekar.

He added that though they have all the equipment and infrastructure, power failure poses a big risk, as everything is 100 per cent dependency on electric supply. "On October 12, 2020 when the city had no electricity for 8 hours, we provided 30,000 litres of diesel to hospitals as many COVID-19 patients were on oxygen support and hospitals had backup for just 2 to 3 hours. If such a situation arises again, and if the electricity is disrupted for a few days like in other cities, how we will cope is the real challenge. The second challenge is to track the people in the absence of a mobile network," said Narvekar.

Special team for landslide prone areas

The BMC will now form special teams to visit landslide prone areas to create awareness. "There are 74 vulnerable spots and we will start awareness from May 15 with the help of local participation. Only retaining walls cannot stop landslides. Pruning of trees, tackling lose rocks, choked storm water drains, closing weeping holes of the walls are also issues which need local help," said Narvekar.

Updated app for disaster management

The BMC will come up with an updated app for disaster management. Until now the disaster app was limited to the rainy season. The mobile app will now be freely available for other seasons. The app will track the location and give information about flooding spots, police stations, fire stations, etc. The app will be in the public domain within two weeks.