With the worst floods in a century causing devastation in Kashmir, the people in the Valley want the government to improve the drainage system by acting against illegal constructions and encroachments on the banks of the rivers and other water bodies.
Most of the people complain of a "faulty" system to drain out water from many areas of the Valley especially Srinagar city, alleging the government was "sleeping" over the issue.
"There is no drainage system in place. Whatever little there is, it is faulty. It does not drain out water," Rashid Ahmad Malik, a resident of Jawahar Nagar, said.
Malik said the failure of such a system can be gauged by the fact that even when there is slight rain for a day or two, many areas of the city get inundated.
"Whenever there is rain, many areas get inundated as the water gets trapped in the absence of an efficient drainage system and the authorities have to use water pumps to drain it out manually," he said.
People are not only concerned about an efficient system to drain out water in the city but also want the government to have the flood spill channels in the Valley that are free from any encroachments and handle the kind of water discharge as witnessed during the recent floods.
"Earlier, Kashmir had flood channels and whenever there was a rise in the water levels in the rivers like Jhelum, the water was discharged to other water bodies and we were saved from the kind of destruction we just experienced," Riyaz Ahmad Khan, a resident of Bemina, said.
Khan said there has been massive encroachment at many places on the banks of various river bodies and the government was not dealing with those the way it should.
