PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss has warned that Chennai could face cloudburst-like rainfall linked to climate change and urged the Tamil Nadu government to strengthen the city’s flood-prevention and stormwater drainage infrastructure.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Ramadoss said several parts of Chennai received rainfall during the 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am that day at an intensity comparable to a cloudburst. He said the warning was significant because the city’s drainage network would need to handle increasingly intense rainfall events.
Ramadoss said the PMK had been cautioning for more than five years that climate change could produce cloudburst-like situations in Chennai. He also claimed that the situation could worsen this year because of the impact of El Niño, while warning that climate change could create consequences beyond current expectations.
The statement renewed attention on the recommendations of the committee headed by disaster-management expert Thirupugazh. According to Ramadoss, the committee’s report has not been made public even after 43 months, despite the previous DMK government stating that it contained 161 recommendations.
He said the government had also stated that 101 of those recommendations were being implemented. However, Ramadoss questioned how residents and other stakeholders could assess progress when the full report had not been released and the specific recommendations implemented by the government were not known.
The demand for disclosure comes as Chennai continues to face the challenge of managing intense rainfall across a dense urban area. Stormwater drainage capacity depends not only on the construction of drains but also on the functioning of connected flood-prevention infrastructure and the availability of clear implementation responsibilities.
Ramadoss urged the government to publish the Thirupugazh Committee report and use its recommendations to improve Chennai’s flood-prevention and stormwater drainage systems. The statement did not provide a current government response to his demands or independently establish the status of each of the 101 recommendations said to be under implementation.
