Chennai is expected to get climate resilient infrastructure, including additional disaster relief centres, and retrofitting of civic infrastructure to tackle the impact of climate change.
Civic agencies in the city, including the Greater Chennai Corporation, Metrowater, Water Resources Department, Highways Department and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, are likely to develop climate resilient infrastructure.
On Tuesday, a series of meetings were held with various line agencies to study the impact of climate change in Chennai and redesign the infrastructure networks that are likely to be affected by the physical impact of climate change. For instance, various studies in progress have focussed on the potential impact of major floods in the city and the direct flood damages suffered by civic infrastructure and disruption of transportation and electricity.
After a series of meetings with various civic agencies of the city in the next few weeks, the government is likely to take a decision on the line agencies that will play an essential role in building resilience to the impacts of climate change.
As studies have suggested that the frequencies of disaster events, including extreme rainfall, are expected to increase in the city, the civic agencies are likely to ensure that the infrastructure is climate resilient to reduce direct losses and indirect costs. According to the draft of a study submitted on Tuesday, there is an urgent need to build or identify more relief shelters with modern toilets where people can gather in the event of a disaster. In the previous disaster events, less than 200 relief shelters were readied at various parts of the city.
A study has outlined a slew of possible policy interventions such as improving communication, warning systems, addressing drainage concerns, management of waterbodies, facilitating community resilience and climate budgeting.
Infrastructure assets have to be planned, designed, built and operated to account for the climate changes. Existing infrastructure in various parts of the city may need to be retrofitted. Additional infrastructure, including sea walls, are likely to be proposed to address the physical impacts of climate change.
