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As an Indian watching these events, it refreshes my memories of flooding in Indian cities(Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc). Which are almost of the same s
by kamaal 6y ago
As an Indian watching these events, it refreshes my memories of flooding in Indian cities(Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc). Which are almost of the same scale if not more or less.
I wonder if the entirety of the Indian subcontinent suffers from the same long standing issues of governance, disdain for law, corruption and in general total apathy towards one's surroundings.
As a native Bangalorean. I've seen the city shredded to literal garbage, there are tall housing complexes in places where there were lakes, and there are real estate developments in natural valleys. Existing lakes have been long encroached upon, and turned into cesspools receiving sewage from nearby apartments. These flats sell for premium rates as they are ironically called 'lakeview'.
Every few months a famous lake called Bellandur lake catches fire, due to methane emissions. Also there is just unimaginable amount of dust and pollution, to a point you can feel the dust in your mouth. Dengue outbreaks are common here. What's shocking in all of this people continue to buy these 'lakeview' flats. Continue to buy properties in lands which are encroaching lakes.
I remember during the Chennai floods, some one had posted how the velachery lake had been transformed into a rectangle after years of encroachment, the whole area was flooded.
This is above and beyond the fact that plastic littering, and garbage disposal in general is so bad that it clogs the whatever little drains exist.
Didn't know that Pakistan hasn't changed all that much since partition. May be some one from Pakistan can talk about how it is there.
- nfca 6y agoThere is some variability in the state of cities across Pakistan. Karachi is the largest and most dense city by a significant margin, so its needs are much greater. In comparison, Lahore, the second largest city in the country, and the premier city of the affluent province of Punjab hosts far better infrastructure. Consequently, it suffers a mere fraction of the magnitude of such issues as Karachi. In addition to a different geography, which, of course, is a significant factor, Lahore has received much greater investment of political will, civic planning and funds.
- kamaal 6y ago>>premier city of the affluent province of Punjab hosts far better infrastructure. Curious. Which city is this?
- bonzini 6y agoLahore.
- ignoramous 6y ago> premier city of the affluent province of Punjab hosts far better infrastructure. If I were to guess, it is because the political power has long rested with Pakistani Punjabis and Lahore is their capital city. Whilst Karachi has long been relegated as city of migrants.
- kamaal 6y agoI followed some Twitter troll fight during their flooding crisis. Apparently they have some constitutional amendment which gives local/state governments complete ownership of their local issues. I don't recall what that was. But it looked like classic central government vs state government fight.
- pknerd 6y agoYes. All these stuff needs to be taken care by provincial govt as per 18th amendment which transfers power to provinces but some how incompetent Sind govt blames the center. - I am from Karachi.
- sfjailbird 6y agoAs a Westerner who travels to Pakistan once in a while, of the three biggest cities (Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad), Karachi seems like an outlier in terms of corruption, even for Pakistan, with entrenched mafia rule. I don't know the reasons this is so in Karachi, perhaps as the port city smuggling is big there. In terms of infrastructure, Karachi also seems different as you said, with lots of apartment buildings, where other cities like Lahore is almost exclusively villas, so density will be higher with more strain on infrastructure. A very interesting development is the premiership of Imran Khan who is politically independent (excluding being beholden to the military as is all political leaders) and genuinely making a big effort in fighting corruption. It will be interesting to see how much he can accomplish.
- smusamashah 6y agoWe all thought he will remain politically independent. He isn't and never was. I was even part of his early campaigns as a youngster who were his main focus at the time. He is better and many aspects very different, but political system including almost everyone surrounding him are garbage. He is facing the same challenges now for which he use to harshly criticize previous governments. I stopped watching news but the biggest is probably currency being devalued continuously.
- blueblisters 6y agoWhile Indian cities are definitely challenged infrastructure-wise in a lot of ways, the specific problem of rainwater management deserves to be given more focused attention. Most Indian cities receive a ton of rainfall in the span of a few weeks, and hence infrastructure needs to be designed for peak rainfall that is perhaps 5-10x of average rainfall. As with all things, designing a system to handle 5-10x peak utilization is significantly more complex and expensive, especially when it will be in peak use for maybe 1 of 52 weeks of the year. In some cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc., the economic downsides have finally started to outweigh the costs of dealing with this problem - but lack of local funding and executive leadership will probably keep infrastructure playing catch-up with future floods and climate change events. I would argue this applies to all other problems that happen due to scale of Indian urban areas - heat management, air pollution, waste disposal, traffic etc.
- eklavya 6y agoOh man don't get me started on Bengaluru. My tier 2 hometown sees more infrastructure activities than this silicon valley of India. People are just apathetic docile don't cares here. How come with an enormous budget and a rich state it's sooo bad? Doesn't matter who is in power here, same story all around.
- wow_yes 6y agoSounds like Silicon Valley in America, especially with transit and housing.
- mangamadaiyan 6y agoOh, you just can't compare Marathahalli or Silk Board with the 101, 680, 280 or 880. None of the latter even come close. They're both horrible in their own way, but I'd say Bangalore is worse. You don't often find ambulances stranded in traffic in SV, for instance. This is (was, until the pandemic?) a daily occurrence out here.
- srean 6y agoFrom what I understand the GDP of Bangalore enriches the federal body more than the state. The state gets money from center based on the population of state as a whole. So the state politicians do not have much skin in the game to try to keep Bangalore sustainable. Would be happy to be corrected.
- mangamadaiyan 6y agoI'd say the situation is even more twisted. This policy effectively motivates the state politicians to keep things unsustainable in order for them to make money (indirectly) off scarce resources in the city.
- mangamadaiyan 6y agoI'm curious. What people exactly are "apathetic docile don't cares here", and why?