Srinagar flooded again on Monday morning. 

A few hours of rain turned roads into streams and colonies into ponds throughout the so-called Smart City. 

Boulevard Road, the city’s showpiece promenade, sat underwater. SKIMS Medical College Hospital at Bemina, known locally as JVC, reported flooding inside its wards. 

The meteorological department predicts heavy rainfall through July 23. But anyone who lived through 2014 knows what comes next.

Before those catastrophic floods, Srinagar needed roughly a week of continuous downpour to see serious inundation. 

Now a single morning does the damage. 

Relentless Rain Batters Jammu Region

Srinagar’s Drainage Distress 

Low-lying areas throughout the city have lost their natural absorption capacity. Earth filling has swallowed wetlands and floodplains at Bemina, Hokersar, Zainakote, Narbal, Soibugh, Hyderpora, Rawalpora, and Pir Bagh. Developers have encroached upon Dal Lake and downtown basins. 

The construction of NH 44 through Gallander and Pampore, together with the Srinagar Semi Ring Road project, dumped fill dirt throughout the Gallander-Khadernmoh-Khanda wetland and paddy lands. 

These projects choked the zamindar khols, irrigation canals, and natural water channels that once drained the valley. Last year, Pampore to Nowgam turned into a lake during ordinary monsoon rains. 

The buffers are gone, and the water lacks any natural outlet.

Government officials speak of 2014 as a........

© Kashmir Observer