Wages of ‘development’, and lessons ignored

Three days of heavy rainfall brought Hyderabad to its knees. Heavy flooding in the city has claimed the lives of over 50 people so far. Extensive damage to property has been reported. With residential and commercial areas alike going under water, Hyderabad was transformed overnight into a city with a river coursing through it. Houses in low-lying areas were inundated and vehicles could be seen floating down streets. The downpour was indeed heavy. According to the Met Department, rainfall in recent days has been the heaviest in over a century. Hyderabad received more rain on Tuesday than the amount it generally receives during the whole month of October. And yet, it is hard to dispel the feeling that the magnitude of the damage the rain left behind is disproportionately large even for such heavy rains. Human ‘development’ activity, which has weakened Hyderabad’s capacity to withstand such heavy rains, worsened the impact. Flooding happened because Hyderabad’s lakes overflowed, and this was the outcome of relentless encroachment of lakes by land sharks. Buildings and apartment complexes have come up on land illegally reclaimed from lakes or built on the River Musi’s embankments. Some of the areas that suffered severe flooding over the past week were part of lakes even just a few years ago. Clogged stormwater drains and sewage systems added to the making of the disaster. How can flood waters be drained out of our roads if pipes and channels are blocked?

Hyderabad’s flooding is not an isolated incident. The city has suffered similarly in the past as well. We have seen similar flooding in Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai in recent years. In all these instances, the underlying reason is the same: unplanned urban development, lake and river encroachment and broken or blocked stormwater and sewage drain channels are turning downpours into disasters.

Every year, in the run-up to the monsoons, civic bodies boast that they have the situation under control and that stormwater drains have been desilted and cleared of construction debris. Hundreds of crores of rupees are allocated for such work, but little is actually done, as is evident from the flooding that follows a few weeks later. Climate change is expected to bring more frequent extreme weather events. Heavy downpours will happen more often. Civic authorities need to be proactive. Building encroachments on lakes and rajakaluves must be dismantled and sewage systems improved. Dumping of debris in drains should be sternly punished. Simply desilting a pipe here or randomly bulldozing an illegal construction on a drain there cannot be the solution. Sustained and long-term strategies are needed to protect our cities from going under water.