The city I currently live in has been doing well in terms of urban planning. For once, it's one of the places I've seen with a good drainage system whereby if rain falls easily, the water gets flushed out easily with no stress. We have neighboring cities that, when it rains, they would be in the headlines as flood cases, and that's as a result of poor drainage systems.
Unsplash
Like I said, we have the best system here; the waterways are being controlled by drainage channels which are channeled to a river body at the outskirts of the town. I don't know if channeling water to the river is a good idea, but I think there's no better option. This river I haven't been close to it, so I don't know if it flows. If it doesn't, that means it's going to get the place smelly. The one in my home villa, the river flows with high current, so there's no effect of the water channelled there.
However, for some time, these drainage systems have not been well managed; residents dump rubbish inside them, and they don't get cleared off often. There's a particular spot at the junction of our street where the drainage has an open cover where three channels meet and follow the main one leading to the rivers. This place has turned into the dumping area for the residents of the place. They sweep and pack the debris such as nylon, dead leaves, and plastics inside. Also, their dishwashing water is being poured there, and it makes me wonder if the odor oozing out from there is not detrimental to their health.
The place is so bad and obvious, but no one, including the people in charge of urban planning, is doing anything to shun the act. The place is so bad that if it rains, the spot is blocked, and the water from the three channels sinks there, mixing with the rotten water, making it smell. It stays like that until it gets dried down a little via vaporization, but anytime it rains heavily in a consecutive manner, it'll be filled to the brim, and the plastic and other substances in there will float out and spread across the environment.
Afte the rain, the people there will sweep their compound and still pack the substances brought out by the water from the spot, back into it. Those people lack sense💔
Why am I lamenting and complaining?
The thing is that it's not just okay to have a good system; it makes more sense if these systems are being checked and put to good use. I'm sure there are people employed to check the effectiveness of these drainage systems, but we don't see them at work. Maybe they're willing to work, but payments have not been encouraging, or maybe there's payment, but they're not willing to work.
In a nutshell, the urban planning thing is no longer working. I think the beautiful ideas already implemented were done by a set of government and immediately their tenure expired, the new ones trashed that off their agenda.