It's raining crises: Cities need urgent plans for climate change impacts

Indian capital New Delhi (and also Delhi), millennium city Gurugram, financial capital Mumbai, Silicon city Bengaluru, and emerging industrial hub Chennai have one thing in common. Every monsoon in the past decade saw these metropolises, all critical centres of economic activity, come to a standstill. The recent flooding and dislocation of daily life in the National Capital Region and of Mumbai is part of this continuum. Municipal authorities are well aware of the widespread misery, deaths, and an erosion of economic value, which these weather events cause. But the glaringly evident solutions appear to elude them. 

At first glance, the easy culprit to pinpoint is growing indiscriminate urbanisation. The fact is that urbanisation has been an inevitable corollary to economic growth and development globally. India is no different. The real challenge is to ensure that expanding urban agglomerations are planned optimally, with due consideration for ecological balance and viable financing models to sustain their maintenance. This has not been the case almost anywhere in India, where construction lobbies are gaining influence with municipal institutions, which are increasingly strapped for finance. The result is that trees are felled at will or their roots encased in suffocating concrete enclosures, green belts increasingly destroyed, and water bodies concreted over without consideration for local hydrology even as the supporting infrastructure of basic drainage systems and flood-control mechanisms are conspicuous for their inadequacy. Even the simple steps of cleaning drains in preparation for the monsoon appear to elude municipal authorities. 

Climate change and extreme heat are amplifying these problems each year and demand urgent proactive solutions. Studies have shown that the Indian monsoon has been heavier, especially in north-central India, in recent decades. It has also become more erratic. This year, for instance, the monsoon not only arrived early — in some states nearly two weeks to 18 days ahead of schedule — it has also intensified with multiple western disturbances, which contribute to extreme weather events, causing widespread damage from Jammu & Kashmir to Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. According to Down to Earth magazine, the monsoon this year witnessed 15 western disturbances till the end of August, which wreaked havoc along the lower Himalayan belt, where, again, random and haphazardly planned construction, which gouges out mountainsides and flattens treelines, is causing untold damage. This year’s cycle of death and destruction near Harsil Valley, caused by a mudslide, was largely the result of housing and hotels being built on fragile terrain where construction should not ordinarily have taken place. 

Looking ahead, Indian cities urgently need superior monsoon-preparedness plans.  They were badly equipped to deal with the seasonal monsoon in the first place; now urban drainage and hydrological systems are simply incapable of handling not just the extended monsoon but also the higher volumes of rainfall that occur in shorter and sharper episodes. After receiving 5 per cent above normal rain in August, the India Meteorological Department has predicted above average monsoon rain in September. The first week alone saw Delhi and Gurugram under water. This is surely a poor precursor to a Viksit Bharat.