Mumbai Floods: Why India's Cities Are Struggling With Extreme Rainfall

Mumbai floods: Why India’s cities are
struggling with extreme rainfall

Incessant rains hit Mumbai for the fourth straight day on Tuesday, flooding vast areas of the city, throwing traffic
out of gear on key arteries and affecting trains and flights services in the Maharashtra capital.
As parts of India’s financial capital went under after more than 200mm rainfall – the
equivalent of 11 days of average daily monsoon rainfall in 12 hours – on August 29, 2017,
the deluge mirrored similar scenes in other cities this month, a consequence of increased
concretisation and increasingly variable rainfall patterns, according to various studies.
As of 6.30pm on August 29, 2017, Santa Cruz in suburban Mumbai received 322mm rainfall
over the preceding 24 hours, Andheri 320 mm, Worli on the city’s western seaboard had
received 308mm, Borivali 262mm and Byculla 238mm, according to data from the
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
This is the worst flooding since 2005 when, in 24 hours to 8.30am on July 27, 2005, in its
worst ever flooding, Mumbai witnessed 944mm of rain, with more than 500 people dying in
that flood.
The rain came down in Mumbai much as it had in Chandigarh on the morning of August 21,
2017. By afternoon, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana had received 112 mm of rainfall,
23 times the city’s average daily monsoon rainfall. Similarly, on August 15, Bengaluru
received 37 times, and on August 11-12 Agartala received more than 11 times its average
daily monsoon rainfall of the last five years.
In Chandigarh, a city of 1 million, commuters found it difficult to reach their destinations,

and some had to abandon their cars and motorbikes on the roads. Many vehicles floated in
the water–a reminder of similar images from Chennai during the November-December 2015
floods. Water entered buildings, and the urban administration of the country’s best-planned
city descended into chaos.
Independence Day 2017 was unusually wet and waterlogged for Bengaluru. Heavy rains
started around midnight, and by morning, 128 mm of rain had cascaded down on the city of 9
million. Localities in and around Koramangala in the southern part of the city went under
water, with parked vehicles nearly submerging.
On August 11 and 12, 2017, a heavy downpour drowned Agartala, the capital of Tripura in
northeastern India. While the city of 438,000 received 102 mm of rainfall in one day, on the
next there was 94 mm, and 196 mm in two days was more than the city could take. The city’s
systems collapsed, and normal life was disrupted.
On July 26-27, 2017, the downpour was in Ahmedabad, where within 24 hours the city of 5.5
million received 200 mm of rainfall. To make matters worse, due to heavy rainfall in the
upper part of the Sabarmati river catchment, the authorities had to release water from the
Dharoi dam. With the river hemmed in by perpendicular, concrete riverbanks as it flowed
through Ahmedabad, there were serious threats of heavy flooding, and the administration
reportedly evacuated more than 10,000 people.
In the monsoon months of July to September, between 2012 and 2016, Mumbai’s suburban
district received an average rainfall of 18.54 mm. As we said, Mumbai received more than 11
times this amount in under 12 hours on August 29, 2017.
With such cloudbursts becoming more frequent across India, these are the questions
scientists are considering: Is the prognosis of extreme weather events becoming more
frequent and intense due to climate change beginning to come true? Are Indian cities
designed to withstand such events? What can be done to make them more resilient?
Increased rainfall intensity in a time of climate change
Recent research indicates that the intensity of these extreme weather events is increasing,
according to Pradeep Mujumdar, chairman, Interdisciplinary Centre for Water Research
(ICWaR) at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Also, the intensity of urban events
vis-à-vis non-urban ones is increasing.
“Though it is difficult to attribute any one event to climate change, there is much research
results from across the world that is showing that the pattern of multiple extreme events in a
season is happening due to the changing climate,” Mujumdar told indiaclimatedialogue.net, a
website dedicated to climate-change reportage.
Chennai had a series of five “extreme precipitation events”, in scientific parlance, between
November 8 and December 4, 2015. Before the city could recover from one event, it was
battered by the next. The climax was the release of water from the Chembarambakkam
reservoir upstream of the city, causing the Adayar river to jump its banks in Chennai.
The secondary runway of the Chennai airport, built over the Adayar river, was flooded and
airport services were paralysed for days. To evacuate those who wanted to leave the city and
were stuck at the airport, the Indian Navy helped operate civilian flights from the naval air
base at nearby Arkonam.
ICWaR has been studying the urban flooding events in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru
in recent years. For Bengaluru, the team compared 26 general circulation models (or global
climate models) along four “representative concentration pathways”–greenhouse gas
emission scenarios up to year 2100, used by the Fifth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The conclusion: Climate change
projections clearly indicate an increase in high-intensity rainfall.
Mumbai: Heavy rains lashed the city and its suburbs this afternoon, but there was no
report of waterlogging or disruption of transport services.
On 29 August, the metropolis received more than 300 mm rainfall, crippling the transport
services and throwing normal life out of gear.
On Sunday, the weather department had forecast heavy rains in Mumbai and the coastal
Konkan region for the next three days. However, the metropolis did not receive any
significant amount of rainfall yesterday.
This morning, Mumbai woke up to an overcast condition and in the afternoon, heavy
downpour accompanied by thunder and lightning started.
Several parts of the city, including South Mumbai, Borivali, Kandivili, Andheri and
Bhandup, received heavy rainfall.
However, no untoward incident has been reported so far from any part of the city, said an
official attached with the Disaster Management Cell of the Brihanmumbai Municipal
Corporation (BMC).
He said the civic administration and other agencies have geared up to tackle any eventuality
arising out of the rains. Both road and train traffic, including the suburban rail network,
remain unaffected by the downpour, the official added.
As per information received from the Colaba observatory, the north Konkan region of
Maharashtra, including Mumbai and its neighbouring areas, is expected to receive more
rains.
“Some places are expected to receive heavy showers. Therefore, we have alerted citizens to
take precaution,” he said.
Recently India has witnessed heavy rainfall across the nation. Heavy
rainfall in a short span of time has created paralysing floods that have
taken a heavy toll of life, wiped out crops and destroyed infrastructures in
both rural and urban India. Five lakh people are displaced and floods have
also caused massive damage to infrastructure, including roads and
bridges.
Impact of heavy rain-

 The farmers of these flood affected areas are facing heavy loss as
thousands of acres of their paddy and other Kharif crops have either
been submerged under flood water or have been totally eroded away
by the streams of bulging rivers.
 Livestock in these flooded regions is also facing hardship because of
acute shortage of fodder. Many people died in flood related incidents in
Assam, Bihar etc.
 Due to rain, many cities in India like Gurugram, Bengaluru faced
various issues like traffic jams, waterlogged roads and flooding.
 Monsoon rains triggered miles-long traffic snarls in some cities, leaving
thousands of commuters stranded for hours without water or food.
 Similarly rains have cause heavy damages to infrastructure like roads,
bridges, building etc.
Issues and suggestions-
 India spends huge money on disaster reduction works but still the work
of various agencies in the event of disaster is not upto the mark. For
example the Flood Control Department as well as the disaster relief
force have well-funded budgets, the hundreds of crores of rupees
periodically spent on flood preparation, relief and mitigation research in
various states have not yielded a protocol that reduces the impact of
heavy rain.
 There is an urgent need of fresh insight into the causes, effects and
impact of rain and floods across the India, and central and state
governments should effectively coordinate in tackling such crisis.
 Planning in India both in urban and rural areas, must follow their
respective planning principles to make the it sustainable and resilient.
Facing the same problems year-after-year and escaping to business-
as-usual after a few days of negative press is not the solution.
Conclusion-
Recent rains have caused severe flooding in several parts of the country,
leading to the displacement of thousands of people from their homes.
Economically it has caused heavy damage, but official estimates will come
only when waters recede. India is prone to various disasters, hence
government should relook its strategy to tackle such disasters.

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Mumbai floods: Why India’s cities are

struggling with extreme rainfall

In Chandigarh, a city of 1 million, commuters found it difficult to reach their destinations,

Increased rainfall intensity in a time of climate change

Impact of heavy rain-

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