A brief news item
from the Times of India reports that the city of Vadodara is considering
how to keep people and storm drains apart—something we’ve dealt with in
Stormwater magazine and online
from time to time (read my Stormwater blog Remedying Retention Pond Dangers). Vadodara, in the western state of Gujarat on the banks of the
Vishwamitra River, apparently has many newly constructed open storm drains;
during the monsoon season particularly, when water levels are high, people tend
to walk or drive into them. The city has considered putting chain-link fence or
less-expensive barbed-wire fence around the drains; at one point officials
wanted to put concrete slabs over the open drains, but that turned out to be
prohibitively expensive. It’s a more common situation than many people realize: Accidents occur
near open stormwater conveyances, or people try to cross moving water—often
deeper and moving faster than it looks—and end up trapped, or worse.
In some situations, of course,
fences won’t help. In an article
on retention pond safety, the authors warn, “Many
children … will view crossing a fence as a worthy and exciting challenge.” And
you can’t always protect people from themselves: Last year a German man
drowned after removing a storm drain cover to retrieve his car keys, which had
fallen through the grate.
Is the better strategy to use
physical barriers, or to try to educate the public about the dangers? What is
the policy, if any, in your area?