The Water Logged,” Sati Sar,’. The Buck Stops Where?
Alarm Bells Are Ringing! A Small Downpour,
a Big Warning, Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili
Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili
Alarm Bells Are Ringing: Ask the Experts. A doctor writing about drainage engineering may seem unusual. But when hospitals become islands after just two hours of rain, medicine and engineering inevitably intersect. Every flooded road delays an ambulance, every submerged hospital endangers patients, and every failure of urban infrastructure becomes a public health emergency. I grew up in a family of engineers, several of whom were distinguished in their profession. I chose medicine instead. Ironically, today everyone seems to be an expert on healthcare, while doctors increasingly find themselves speaking about roads, drainage, urban planning, and governance—not because we seek to, but because these failures directly affect the lives, we are entrusted to save. Srinagar’s recent inundation is not merely an engineering failure; it is a governance failure with profound public health consequences. The time has come to stop debating symptoms and start asking the experts the right questions before a preventable disaster becomes an irreversible tragedy.
On the morning of 20 July, barely two hours of rainfall brought Srinagar—the much-publicised “Smart City”—to a standstill. This was neither a cloudburst nor a once-in-a-century flood. It was an ordinary spell of heavy rain. Yet roads disappeared under water, hospitals became difficult to access, markets shut down, residential colonies were inundated, and sections of major highways resembled canals rather than roads. The obvious question is: if this is what happens after two hours of rain, what exactly is “smart” about our Smart City? The buck has to stop somewhere.
Like most Kashmiris, I woke to the sound of thunder and rain. Looking out of the window, I realised it was an unusually intense shower. Within minutes, social media was flooded—not with rumours but with videos showing submerged streets, stranded commuters and patients struggling through waist-deep water.One place particularly disturbed me: SKIMS Medical College Hospital, JVC Bemina. I remain emotionally attached to JVC. From its conception to its recognition by the Medical Council of India, I witnessed the institution’s growth. Those were difficult years filled with sleepless winter nights, administrative hurdles and relentless effort by dedicated professionals. Seeing floodwater surrounding the hospital therefore hurt deeply. To the credit of the present administration, Director SKIMS Dr. M. Ashraf Ganie reached the site promptly, reviewed the situation personally and directed immediate remedial measures. Leadership during a crisis matters. But leadership also demands asking uncomfortable questions once the water recedes. Could this have been prevented? That question deserves an honest answer.
As the day progressed, I came across a thoughtful technical note on FB page by engineer Er. Manzoor Ahmad Nawchoo, explaining why Srinagar’s drainage system repeatedly fails. His observations deserve serious consideration—not because they are dramatic but because they are grounded in engineering fundamentals. He points to several lacunae recurring gaps-for eninerrs,city planners to take a “review.’-Construction of drains often lacks proper engineering supervision. Design gradients—the very feature that allows water to flow by gravity—are frequently compromised during execution. Storm drains are inadequately sized for today’s rainfall patterns. Incomplete connectivity leaves sections of drains isolated instead of forming continuous networks leading to disposal points. Disposal levels themselves may be incorrectly designed, causing backflow during heavy rain.Maintenance is equally neglected. Drains remain clogged with silt, vegetation and debris because regular desilting is irregular or absent. Missing manhole covers encourage dumping of garbage, plastic bottles and polythene bags, further choking the system. Road geometry in many places prevents rainwater from naturally entering side drains, allowing it instead to accumulate across road surfaces. None of these are mysterious engineering challenges. They are failures of planning, execution, supervision and maintenance. Climate change has certainly altered rainfall patterns. Short-duration, high-intensity precipitation is becoming more frequent across Kashmir. But climate cannot become an excuse for infrastructure failure. Urban infrastructure is supposed to anticipate changing risks, not merely react after every disaster.
Cities across the world receive far heavier rainfall without paralysing their hospitals. Why not Srinagar? The uncomfortable truth is that we often celebrate projects at inauguration but neglect their life cycle thereafter. Construction receives attention; maintenance does not. Ribbon-cutting is visible. Desilting drains every year is not. Infrastructure is only as good as its maintenance.
There is another dimension we seldom acknowledge—public behaviour. Citizens cannot escape responsibility. One thought provoking picture (see pic) was shared on social media which caught my eye, Plastic bags, bottles, construction debris and household waste routinely find their way into drains. Every blocked drain reflects both administrative negligence and civic indiscipline. A smart city requires smart governance, but it also requires responsible citizens. However, governance carries the greater burden because systems should be designed to withstand predictable human behaviour.
Restricting my critique to my speciality, from a healthcare perspective, urban flooding is far more than an inconvenience. Ambulances lose precious minutes. Patients miss chemotherapy sessions, dialysis appointments and surgeries. Emergency services become difficult to access. Healthcare workers struggle to reach hospitals. Electrical infrastructure becomes vulnerable. The cost is measured not merely in damaged roads but potentially in damaged lives.As someone involved for decades in healthcare quality, patient safety and clinical auditing, I instinctively approach such events through the lens of Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
Healthcare has learnt an important lesson: blaming individuals rarely solves systemic failures. Instead, we ask 5Whys: Whathappened? Why did it happen? Which barriers failed? What lessons we learnt? Why didn’t we prevent recurrence? The same philosophy should guide urban governance.
Healthcare teaches us not to stop at symptoms. We use Root Cause Analysis and repeatedly ask “Why?” until we reach the system failure. Srinagar’s flooding deserves the same scientific approach.
The 5 Whys;Problem: Srinagar gets inundated after just a few hours of moderate to heavy rainfall.
Why did the city flood?Because stormwater could not drain away fast enough and accumulated on roads, hospitals and residential areas.
Why couldn’t the stormwater drain efficiently?Becausemany storm drains were blocked, undersized, poorly connected, inadequately maintained, or lacked proper gradients and outfalls.
Why were the drains blocked or poorly designed?Becauseof deficiencies in planning, engineering supervision, construction quality, routine desilting, and enforcement against dumping of solid waste.
Why did these deficiencies persist?Because there wasinadequate accountability, weak quality assurance, poor inter-departmental coordination, insufficient preventive maintenance, and little independent technical auditing after project completion.
Why does the system continue to fail repeatedly? Becauselessons from previous flooding events are not converted into institutional learning. There is no systematic Root Cause Analysis, no performance audit, and no continuous quality improvement using the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle.
After the Five Whys, every city administration should ask: Which barriers failed? Engineering design?Constructionquality? Supervision? Maintenance? Solid? Solid? Solid waste management? Urban planning? Disaster preparedness? What corrective actions will prevent recurrence? Who is accountable for implementing and monitoring these actions? This ends with the principle we time and again concerned citizens already advocated: Is Anybody listening.?
Every major flooding event should trigger an independent, multidisciplinary Root Cause Analysis (RCA) involving engineers, hydrologists, urban planners, environmental experts, disaster management specialists, and civil society—not merely routine inspections and water pumping. The objective is not to assign blame but to identify systemic failures, implement corrective actions, and prevent recurrence. As Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle reminds us: Plan scientifically. Execute professionally. Audit honestly. Correct relentlessly. Repeat. Unfortunately, our systems often stop at “Do.” Projects are completed, payments released, files closed—but performance is rarely audited and lessons are seldom learnt. Whether managing a hospital or a city, continuous improvement is impossible without feedback and accountability. Unless every inundation becomes a learning opportunity, every heavy rainfall will produce the same flooding, the same excuses, and the same suffering.
This article is not written to assign blame to any individual officer or department. It is written because the city deserves better. The engineers of Kashmir are among the finest in the country. Our planners, administrators and technical experts possess the knowledge required to solve these problems. What is needed is institutional accountability, rigorous auditing, professional execution and the humility to learn from gaps, and mistakes. It is about demanding better systems. Kashmir has capable engineers, planners and administrators. What is needed is institutional accountability, rigorous auditing, professional execution and the humility to learn from failure.
Srinagar urgently needs a comprehensive drainage audit—not piecemeal repairs after every downpour. Storm drains must be digitally mapped, hydraulic capacities recalculated using current rainfall data, bottlenecks identified through modern modelling, and desilting publicly monitored. Contractors should remain accountable beyond project completion, with mandatory independent engineering audits before final acceptance of major works.
Critical infrastructure, especially hospitals, must never become casualties of urban flooding. Every tertiary-care institution needs a flood-resilience plan, emergency pumping systems, protected electrical installations, alternate access routes and integrated disaster preparedness. Citizens, too, have a responsibility. Constructive criticism should not become political point-scoring, nor should legitimate concerns be dismissed as negativity. Democracies function best when governments listen and citizens speak with evidence rather than outrage.
Alarm Bells Are Ringing! Srinagar’s inundation after a brief downpour is more than an inconvenience—it is a warning. If moderate rain can flood hospitals, submerge homes, paralyse roads, and cripple emergency services, what will happen during an extreme rainfall event? Climate change is making such events more frequent. This demands an urgent independent review by experts in hydrology, drainage engineering, urban planning, and disaster management. Storm drains, flood channels, culverts, pumping stations, and encroached waterways must be scientifically audited. Nature has conducted a disaster drill. The question is stark: Is Srinagar prepared for the next, much bigger storm—or are we waiting for catastrophe to expose our failures?
Natural Disasters Are Wake-Up Calls. Natural disasters carry both scientific and spiritual messages. Science demands better planning, resilient infrastructure, and disaster preparedness. Faith calls for humility, accountability, and reflection. Srinagar’s flooding after a modest rainfall should awaken both our engineers and our conscience. We must restore drainage systems, protect wetlands, remove encroachments, and strengthen emergency preparedness. The Qur’an reminds us: “Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so that they may return” (Quran). Such events are not for judging others but for self-correction. Wise societies heed warnings before they become tragedies.
Every disaster carries a lesson; every flood is an audit of urban governance. The real failure is repeating the same mistakes when that lesson is forgotten before the next rain. The rain of 20 July exposed weaknesses that years of presentations and publicity could not conceal. The photographs will fade. The videos will disappear from social media. The water will recede, but unless we honestly ask “Where did we go wrong?”, conduct an independent professional Root Cause Analysis, and implement corrective and preventive actions through continuous quality improvement, the next heavy shower will bring the same flooding, will produce the same headlines, the same suffering and the same excuses.
A truly smart city is not one that never fails—it is one that learns, improves and does not fail for the same reason twice. That is where the buck must finally stop. A truly smart city is not one that never faces challenges. It is one that learns from every failure and ensures it is never repeated.That is where the buck must finally stop.
The Author, senior surgeon and healthcare quality expert. A concerned citizen, he writes frequently on public policy, healthcare, urban governance, environmental sustainability, and civic accountability drfiazfazili@gmail.com.
