A pedestrian and a motorcyclist wade through a waterlogged Cuttack street on Monday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Oct. 28: More than two lakh residents of the city remain trapped in their homes as water overflow on streets from the drainage channels.

Preliminary findings by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation officials indicate that the inflow of rainwater into the main storm water channel was over 400 per cent more than its outflow capacity following a shower of around 330mm during the four consecutive days from October 21 to 24. Consequently, there was an inflow of more than three lakh cusec rainwater per hour into the channel against an outflow capacity of 75,000 cusec per hour.

The rainwater flow in the city during the four days was around 30 lakh cusec and an estimated 60 hours was required to drain it out with the existing outflow capacity.

Many streets and low-lying areas in most parts of the city remained under 2ft to 3ft rainwater following 91mm rain (80mm in three hours) on October 21. “Incessant rain on October 22 and 23 precipitated the waterlogging as the rainwater had not been completely drained out by then. And the situation worsened as a heavy shower followed on October 24,” said mayor Saumendra Ghose. There was around 175mm rainfall on October 24.

An 8km-long open channel forms the spine of the surface water drainage system. Its branches extend to the older parts of the city. The main drain No. 1 discharges the water into the system. During heavy rainfall, inundation can be checked only if water from the main drain No. 1 is timely diverted into the Taladanda canal. Similarly, timely diversion of the water from the main drain No. 2 into the Kathajodi river can also check waterlogging in the eastern part of the city.

The silt had been removed from almost all the major surface water channels before the monsoon to maintain the full outflow capacity. Besides, the civic body had installed high-power diesel pumps to drain out the stagnant water.

“The volume of rainwater accumulated in the city during the four consecutive days was much higher than the total drainage and pumping capacity. Deployment of additional pumps from several other agencies, in addition to the corporation’s 185 pumps, could check the waterlogging to some extent,” said Cuttack collector Girish S.N.

However, many residents alleged that the waterlogging had worsened due to shoddy removal of silt from the drains.

“The surface water channels had a much reduced water carrying capacity due to sub-standard dredging. Consequently, we have to suffer from waterlogging,” said Badambadi resident Sirish Mohapatra.