Come the monsoon and reports pour in from across India of flooded cities, waterlogged areas, long lines of stationary vehicles, disruptions in public transport systems, landslides and deaths. As a city’s systems break down and throw all its regular rhythms out of gear, the only question that begs an answer is: why does the same story repeat year after year? The search for an answer is not a long one; it is simply the utter failure of urban planning and an abysmal level of urban governance. India’s cities are planned without a regard for their natural topography and ecological footprint which includes green and open spaces for rainwater to soak and natural water channels for the rainwater to flow into. The emphasis in building cities is to have more grey – constructed spaces and infrastructure. The grey comes at the cost of green and blue natural infrastructure. With climate change impacting the rainfall pattern too, floods have become more common than they used to be.
The cost of floods, like that of high heat, is borne by millions who must get to their workplaces and back, formal or informal, often risking their lives or certainly bearing the brunt of transport breakdowns and delays. It must be said that people who put up with this utterly sorry state of affairs, year after year, must be commended for their patience and equanimity to take it in their stride. But it should not be this way, people should not have to struggle so much for so little. Can this be set right? It is a long haul, of course, but governments can certainly take flood mitigation measures and make sure that minute-by-minute updates of flood and transport situations are available to everyone. Over the long term, governments will have to embrace flood adaptation measures and make cities flood-resilient. If cities in The Netherlands, which are land-filled or below sea level, can be designed to be flood-resilient, there is no reason other than official indifference why we in India must struggle through broken systems during every monsoon.
