Combating the Floods

By: Gina Yang

Writing Grade 9-10

“We’re struggling to keep things like the TTC up and running and hospitals up and running,” Haines said on CP24 in Toronto. The July 8, 2013 storm ranks as the most costly natural disaster in the province's history, resulting in over 850 million dollars in property damage, according to CBC news. Despite this, not much effort has been made to deal with the infrastructural problems that led to the extensive flooding that caused the bulk of the damage. 


Although some question the effectiveness of sewage and drainage system upgrades, believing that they'll only serve to increase the already enormous debt held by the city, they can help to alleviate future flood damage as well as improve the functionality of the city during intense storms. Improving Toronto’s drainage and sewage system infrastructure would prevent home and road flooding, resulting in lower water damage costs as well as smoother transportation in the city.

The record breaking downfall of rain caused major sewerage lines to be backed up which resulted in thousands of flooded basements. By July 26, 2013, about 4500 calls had been made to Toronto Water regarding flooded basements. 

“Tanya Morgado, who commutes from Mississauga, Ont., to downtown Toronto, chose to focus on her flooded basement instead of trying to make her way into work. When the 25-year-old got home on Monday night, she ran downstairs — in the dark due to a loss of power — to find muddy water seeping in and rising at an alarming rate. At its highest point, Morgado estimated about 45 centimetres of water covered her carpeted basement floors, rising higher than the electric sockets in the walls.” – National Post.


Currently, according to the Huffington Post, insurers warned that consumer’s insurance bill may rise due to the 850 million dollars in damage as a consequence, strengthening the sewerage system would save people lots of money seeing that home damage would be reduced.

The intense flooding caused by the storm resulted in the closure of many roads and highways, including the Don Valley Parkway. In addition, approximately 1400 GO transit passengers were stuck in the trains for seven hours before being rescued. Moreover, sinkholes were created from the heavy downpour, creating further complications for travelling. CBC news reports that it could cost 8 million dollars for a city to repair all its sinkholes from flooding. Therefore, fixing sewers would not only save money in the future, but it will save people time on their commute and ensure their safety in intense storms.

Although there are numerous solutions, the most straightforward and effective choice would be to simply bring back underground rivers. These underground rivers are designed to relieve stress on the drainage in times on high water traffic. Yet, this idea is outdated and clearly cannot manage the heavy precipitation as shown from July 2013. 


Michael Cook, a graduate student in landscape architecture at the University of Toronto who has been exploring sewer systems around the GTA for the past decade, is championing an idea to ease the strain on the storm sewer system: prevent rain from entering the sewers in the first place. “One way to do this,” he said, “is to restore buried rivers and creeks, a practice known as ‘daylighting’ that is gaining traction in cities around the world.”- The Globe and Mail. Daylighting will not only help to alleviate stress from the sewage and drainage systems, it will also make Toronto a more environmentally friendly city. This system has also been demonstrated to work in other major cities around the world. When the city of Seoul spent 384 million dollars to restored six kilometres of the Cheonggyecheon stream, air and noise pollution were reduced and birds, fish and insect came back to the area.

Spending over 900 million dollars to improve Toronto’s infrastructure, specifically focusing on drainage and sewage systems would be ideal to Torontonians. Using the money to repair the city and to introduce daylighting would reduce home and road damage in future storms. Commuting during storms will be more efficient, not as many basements would be affected by flooding and the city will become more eco-friendly. Overall, this investment will strengthen Toronto for the future.