My City My Responsibility - Preparedness for Monsoon 2020!

Dear All, 

Monsoons are beautiful, however they can be harsh too..Last monsoon we faced unforeseen damage due to the flash floods in the city. There are many people who are still recovering from the shock who lost their loved ones and property. Many of them are still struggling with their insurance claims. Now, with the COVID-19 in action, the situation is likely to be worse limiting ACCESS to any kind of service/facility easily if you are stuck in a vulnerable/flooded area. This is making the entire scenario even more disastrous and uncontrollable! The monsoon is here. Even though as per IMD predictions we will have average rainfall in the coming weeks, precaution is better than cure. Hence there is a need to take appropriate measures in advance in order to avoid any havoc.  

Considering the current urban development mistakes like excessive concretization even in the so called green and open spaces, encroachments within the flood line and in the riverbed area, illegal dumping of waste on the hills, in the streams and along the river, channeling and capping of our seasonal streams, are some of the issues that make us highly vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Though a more systemic approach is required to resolve these issues. Individual and collective actions at various levels are crucial as an act of preparedness. For the same Samuchit Enviro Tech (along with partners LAYA resource Centre and INECC) has teamed up with Jeevitnadi and Sahapedia Pune Cultural Mapping project for this year's monsoon preparedness actions under the campaign Pune Monsoon Watch #StaySafe #StayDry. National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) is also supporting this initiative. The Pune Municipal Corporation's disaster management cell also is available to provide emergency support. We have created a short video on the posters, I urge everyone to see the video and share it in your circles so that we can reach maximum people in the city. Click HERE to access the video. We have also shared the posters on all our social media handles. Check them out and share!

Meanwhile, a resident of Pune Gayatri Chatterjee noticed dumping of wastes on one of our Tekdis during the lockdown and informed us. This triggered the filing of a petition on making hills and water bodies WASTE FREE. Since its the lockdown time, filing a petition seemed to the immediate course of action. Click HERE to sign the petition! We are currently exploring ways to get this resolved, will keep you posted on this as well.

We are also hosting webinars with different stakeholders of the society for a more comprehensive understanding of the situation. The first webinar took place on 3 July 2020. You can see the recording on the facebook page of Jeevitnadi. Click HERE. We will keep you posted about the future webinars too.Stay tuned!

Pournima Agarkar. 

www.samuchit.com

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