Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Rains & Self-Care of Our Homes!

“If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself”… Richard Wayne Van Dyke

Richard Wayne Van Dyke is an American actor and comedian. His work spans screen and stage, and his accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and six Emmy Awards. Popularly known as Dick Van Dyke, his above words he uttered when he made history by getting Grammy award last week for oldest living artist to get it & he is 98 years old & that’s why his above words about taking right care, I thought of using for this sharing! Now if you are wondering whose care I am referring to because builders are supposed to be caring about only one thing & that is their personal wealth (which actually everybody cares about) but along with being a builder I am an engineer too & of late the rains (read as monsoons) in this city are creating so much havoc that I felt like sharing my experiences on taking prior & proper care of the buildings post possession not just which we have built but in general! Often, I have observed that people spend millions of rupees on their posh interiors as well on the cars but when it comes to protecting these assets or belongings, we are too careless & either ignore the basics of safety measures or think no wrong will come to them! But nature never forgives & even it may not be any wrong thing done by you or your builder or your society (complex/ buildings) for nature the punishment is for the entire humankind (city in our case) & we have to pay for other’s wrong deeds is a fact.

If you think I am a philosopher, then my reply is, it doesn’t matter what I am, but it doesn’t change the fact about my sharing! Some five years back Ambil Odha (A natural water stream flowing through Southern Pune) got flooded breaking compound walls of many buildings alongside it’s both shores & one particular society which is known for its premium living, its basement got flooded with over-flowing water from Ambil Odha & nearly 400 plus cars were submerged & got damaged beyond repair! To my knowledge no insurance was paid to any car owner as it was considered as an Act of God & the very same scene got repeated last week i.e. in 2024’s first rains too. This time not just cars, many ground floor homes & shops also got submerged by water flowing inside the buildings & not from some stream but rain water flowing from the main roads! And it's not about cars or furniture getting damaged, the flooded water entered in to lift shafts, ground water tanks, electricity meter boards, generators & such services making life of the residents of these buildings miserable due to power as well water cuts caused by damage of these services. Apart from financial losses the mental torture as well frustration for being cut of basic necessities of life & most importantly fear in the mind for what more havock next rains will bring in, is something we need to act against, is my subject of sharing!

To start with, it's very much important to get structural stability checking of the building's compound walls periodically every five years. There can be many aspects such as adjoining plot’s development or erosion of the surface soil along the wall from outside of the complex. Any natural water-body around our complex(like a nallaha or small lake) & its course may has got changed due to development works upstream of the same & this may create problems during monsoon with flood water causing damage to our buildings wall. I have witnessed this with my own society where I reside as there was a stream behind our building & we had a retaining wall designed for the stream’s water flow as well of proper height. But after a decade post our possession, some development happened on the downstream of this stream & its gorge got reduced on downstream causing increase in water level behind our building during one monsoon floods & it was so heavy that our wall gave up, fortunately we don’t have a basement & our cars we have already moved on the road outside of our building but the damage to our lifts & electric meter boards caused us quite a headache for nearly a week! At the same time the kind of rainwater coming inside the complex from adjoining roads due to flash floods is a new threat to the compound walls as well as services of the building. As most of the time the compound walls are not designed to take lateral loads, its job of retaining walls & we build retaining walls only when there is some water body along our boundary or there is level difference between our plot & adjoining plot. In many case the access roads surface level which was below earlier but in later years has gone above the building premise level due to concretization of the roads. This makes all rain water flowing over such roads, to enter into the society & damage the compound walls as well this water enters in the parking, lift shafts & other services on ground such as meter boards & generators. In such cases, society can make arrangements to arrest or restrict rain water flowing inside the complex from roads with the help of proper consultants.

The heavy rains can cause seepage & leakages also, especially because of choke-ups in the terraces of the flats which are closed or not in use & common terrace rainwater systems. These are needed to be checked & cleaned before every monsoon to avoid leakages due to water clogging. Another aspect is, checking of electrical cables as well meter board wiring as over the period the insulation of the electric cables may get damaged & when flood water enters around these cables which are laid underground as well at meter boards there is a danger of short-circuit lead fires. At the same time if the society is having basements for parking, then a proper dewatering system must be in place & its maintenance is a very important aspect which many societies’ never pay attention to. See that in the rainy season, no watchman or labour should use the basement for taking shelter or residing purposes at nights & do get alarm systems installed in case of flooding so all the residents can be informed/ warned simultaneously if evacuation of vehicles is needed. Nowadays many projects have an intercom system yet if not, then the society must get it fitted at its own cost. One more monsoon botheration is falling of trees, damaging vehicles around as well even human life at times & this also needs to be checked up for the conditions of the trees around the society & take necessary action from PMC or concerned dept. Finally, don’t curtail spending on good security services & give them proper training about how to react in case of flash flood like situation & conduct a mock drill for the same. You can take help from the local fire dept for this purpose!

You may ask, why the society should do all such efforts, why not the builder should do it, & my reply (not as a builder) as an engineer is, the builder can give you a building which is build & completed by necessary norms at prevailing time, but the builder is not going to live in the home, you are & the floods won’t recognize whose home is it or whose responsibility it is, right? Fact is, changed pattern of monsoon & developments (read as wrong developments) around the city is not fault of some individual entity but of entire system & wisdom is in taking prior precaution, just the way we are needed to wear helmet even if we are driving with all due care, adios with this advice, stay safe & enjoy the rains!

*Please feel free to ask for any assistance on this subject, team Sanjeevani will be happy to assist, you can email us… reception@sanjeevanideve.com/ sales@sanjeevanideve.com

Sanjay Deshpande

smd156812@gmail.com

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at YouTube link below & share if liked...

https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying!

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/01/choosing-your-home-along-with-future-of.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2023/02/blog-post.html

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below

www.punecorporation.org

Take your issues to Hon PM at link below...

https://secure.mygov.in/

Think Green, Think Life