Urban floods; a wake-up call

This July, in Delhi, the Yamuna River had been flowing well above the danger mark on several occasions. This led to flooding with several arterial roads, public infrastructure and monuments affected by the rising water causing much loss of private property and public assets. The floods followed a scorching summer in large parts of the country with many recording all time high temperatures and the resulting distress.

The impacts of climate change are truly upon us and hitting really hard. Further these impacts are likely to remain for the foreseeable future. The global efforts currently underway to cut GHG emissions could take a few decades before making a significant positive impact. In the meanwhile, governments, urban planners and others will have to deal with outcomes of high temperatures, extreme precipitation leading to floods, and so on. As per an ADB report, floods account for over half of climate change related disasters in India; these have caused much pain and financial loss. Large numbers of cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, and several in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and North East have been at the receiving end of flooding in recent times. Therefore there is urgent need for effective urban planning and to build resilient systems to withstand this fury.

For one, we must ensure that or rivers streams and water bodies are all clean and free of obstructions. This will enable free uninterrupted flow of water even when the volume of water increases due to higher rainfall. There will be need to build awareness among common citizens and others to prevent dumping of waste (including construction/demolition waste) into water bodies. Alongside, monitoring and enforcement needs to be toned up so that violations are detected and punished. A related issue if that of storm water drains. These are essential infrastructure to carry away excess rain water from roads and other surfaces. Sometimes, such storm water drains are either choked with waste or of smaller capacity than what the current precipitation rate demands. The growing concretization of our cities’ surfaces and the shrinking of green spaces presents yet another challenge. Green spaces such as parks and gardens act as sponges to absorb excess rainwater. While preventing accumulation and flooding, these also enable replenish ground water and restore the water table. All round efforts are needed to conserve and augment green spaces

In recent years one has seen several instances of cloud bursts and flash floods in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand among others. These are ecologically sensitive and vulnerable locations in the Himalayan region. Experts have opined that there is need to balance the need for better infrastructure (roads, etc.) with the vulnerabilities of the region given the terrain and ecology. While on the one hand better infrastructure (roads, hotels, etc.) will promote tourism and improve local prosperity, on the other hand such higher tourist load could burden the fragile ecology beyond its capacity and cause disasters and hurt the local population. There is thus a need for balance

Each instance of flooding offers several learnings. We must consider these and work to create a more resilient future for our cities