Cuttack, Oct. 27: The civic body has decided to boost its disaster management infrastructure by procuring emergency equipment, including high-power motor pumps, to ensure fast clearance of water in case of heavy rain in the city.

The move comes in the wake of severe inundation of various localities following heavy downpour triggered by a low-pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal earlier this week.

Though the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had used around 148 pumps during the recent rainfall, it was not adequate to pump out water from major drains.

Later, 72 more pumps were also procured from various agencies, but those failed to come to the rescue of the people of low-lying areas.

“We have decided to procure 30 more motor pumps of various capacities so that they can be used to flush out water from the city next time it rains heavily,” said municipal commissioner Pratap Das.

Das said that a detail assessment of the requirement of pumps was also being made along with other equipment for dealing with such incidents in future.

Life of the residents was hit following incessant rain that lashed the city on October 24 as most of the localities were under waist-deep water.

Despite the use of over 220 pumps, the situation is yet to improve as several localities, including Tulasipur, Bidanasi, ITI Colony at Press Chhak, Police Colony, and some low-lying areas of Jagatpur are still waterlogged.

Resentment is also brewing among city residents as efforts of the civic body to clear water from various localities have failed to yield results.

“Our area has remained waterlogged for more than four days. We are being forced to spend days in unhygienic condition,” said Dilip Bhoi, a resident of ITI Colony.

A corporation official said the situation aggravated as all the drains flowed beyond their capacity. There was problem in discharge of wastewater as the water level in Mahanadi and Kathajodi was also very high. Continuous rainfall from Monday had further worsened the situation.

In another development, housing and urban development minister Debi Prasad Mishra also reviewed the waterlogging situation in the city. The state government has directed the corporation and district administration to initiate measures to check spread of water-borne diseases in the wake of cyclone and subsequent inundation in the city.