Shaken by last year’s devastation, Vadodara has braced for floods with a first-of-its-kind rescue force. According to reports, the Vadodara Fire and Emergency Response has assembled a team of 200 trained swimmers as part of its flood preparedness strategy. The move, a first in the city’s history, is quite understandable.
Floods ravaged the city last year, exposing fault-lines in the city’s disaster response. Feeling the heat, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) devised a flood mitigation plan by heeding the suggestions of a government-appointed committee.
Since then, the civic body has pushed ahead with extensive flood control measures — from re-sectioning the Vishwamitri River to dredging ponds and expanding the capacities of the Ajwa and Pratappura reservoirs. The fire and emergency services department has also begun testing rubber boats, including eight newly acquired ones, and other key equipment.
Still, VMC is unwilling to take chances. In a proactive step, it will enlist 200 swimmers through a Mehsana-based private agency, spending nearly Rs 95.58 lakh on their wages. A proposal to engage the agency has already been submitted to the civic body’s standing committee.
VMC chief fire officer Vinay Patil explained, “The conditions include providing trained swimmers along with fitness certificates. In case of an emergency, they will be posted in small groups at locations where flooding is imminent along with our personnel.”
He has said that the swimmers are being brought on as a precautionary measure — a reserve force ready to be deployed if needed. “Once the swimmers arrive, the rotation of their duties and other details will be worked out,” Patil said.
These swimmers will be treated as ‘rescue volunteers,’ hired on a contract basis through the same system VMC uses to employ other temporary workers, such as some drivers in the fire department. “The decision to pay daily wages was made to motivate swimmers and compensate them for income forgone for these three months,” Patil added.
While the move may be unprecedented, for a city still recovering from the trauma of last year’s floods, it may just be the kind of caution that earns public confidence.
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