Artificial floods in Guwahati

With the ongoing incessant rains, our dear Guwahati is submerged with water, filled with dirt and garbage. Starting from mainstream media to social media, everybody is busy lambasting the government.

I do agree that the government should also do their part in the proper way. But have we ever thought that the government alone can’t just solve this major problem?

We as the residents of this city have much to do. It pained me a lot to see the drains filled up with solid waste materials including plastic bottles and others. If we block the drains with such material how will the drains carry the water?

Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) is using Super Suckers to clean up the silts from the drains so that the water flow becomes better. But they couldn’t do their work properly because of these solid waste materials.

Once I heard the GMC workers even found sofas and tables among others in the major canals in the city. So, who are to be blamed?

The roadside drains are designed for a systematic collection, removal or disposal of surface or sub–surface water. To ‘drain out’ itself means to empty something completely of liquids. A drain has got nothing to do with anything solid. Then what is the garbage doing over these drains in Guwahati city? The government is here to solve our problems that we may face from time to time but they are not here to handle the issues that we, the so-called ‘civilized’ residents create.

Garbage and solid wastes are meant to be discarded into the dustbins, not into the drains.

It is the duty of each city dweller to act responsibly. Cultivating an amount of civic sense in us is the need of the hour. We always wish to see the change in this world and we expect the world to do it for us. But have we realized that, each of us as a whole, makes this world! Instead of expecting other people to do something for us, why don’t we start doing the same on our own?

We can always play our parts and take a step towards making that change happen. If we can envision it, we also can achieve it. The change begins with us.

Make some effort to dispose of the plastic bottles and solid stuff into the dustbins and not into the drains. The way we dump the plastic bottles, garbage or solid wastes and block these drains, feels like the Guwahatians don’t really need a dustbin.

What a plight and what a shame!

What we practice today is sure to pose an impending threat to our future generations. Nature will follow its pace without disturbing human space. But if we create indirect ways to hinder or disturb nature’s course, we will be left with no option to solve our problems and at the end of the day, we will have nowhere to go. It’s high time that we should start being civic and responsible for building a cleaner and safer Guwahati.

Bonus: A track from Assamese film ‘Suspended Inspector Boro’ from the famous ‘Local Kung Fu’ team, speaks about the garbage menace.

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Shaheen Akhtar
About Shaheen Akhtar

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Shaheen Akhtar is a Guwahati-based award-winning poet and writer. Her poetry collection 'Words from Dust' was published recently.