Dear readers,

Rainfall of 944.2 millimetres. The digits have become part of our folklore. On July 26, 2005, it rained that much in a day of which nearly 700 millimetres was in less than seven hours that afternoon. Many of us carry traumatic memories of personal experiences or stories shared. And each time the skies open up over Mumbai, our anxieties return from the corner it made home that day. 

Mumbai was battered, marooned. Nearly 1,100 people were dead, lakhs were flooded in their homes and shops or stranded on the streets, rescue boats were out, people pitched in with hot tea and snacks where they could. The rain gauge at Vihar Lake breached the 1,000-millimetre mark and the one at Santacruz was submerged. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation lifted 2,53,612 metric tonnes of debris and garbage over the following days, disposed of more than 16,300 carcasses of animals, sprayed over 24 metric tonnes of disinfecting powders, and set up 130 medical teams to treat patients. The property damage was valued at Rs 5.5 billion. 

As the 20th year of the unforgettable event begins, Question of Cities revisits the flood with a series of analytical essays, interviews, and ground reports to answer the question: Can Mumbai be marooned again?

Mithi River has been at the heart of Mumbai’s flood management since July 2005. Pinched and bent in places, narrowed by encroachments, treated like a sewage stream, the Mithi has been turned into a “project” with nearly Rs 3,000 crore earmarked or spent into walling it, raising its riverbed, desilting, and setting up sewage treatment plants. All these years later, the Mithi should have been a clean flowing watercourse but it is not. Unfortunately, it is seen in isolation from Mumbai’s ecology and this is damaging, analyses Team QoC. Read it here.

In the aftermath of the July 2005 flood, the Madhav Chitale Committee report was widely hailed on two counts – for showing Mumbai’s grave deficiencies in flood management and suggesting a framework for the future. Since then, city authorities have used it as a benchmark of work done or to be done. QoC Associate Editor Shobha Surin explains why a review of its recommendations is urgently needed. Climate change has overtaken some of them and, importantly, flood management is a part of a holistic ecological restoration of the city which it barely takes note of. Read it here.

Architect Shreya Rangaraj dives into the sponge city concept to make Mumbai flood-resilient and illustrates how the city can soak the water, besides draining it. Mumbai’s lakes, marshes, and salt pans used to absorb monsoon rains and mitigate floods but they have been built upon or covered with concrete. As extreme climate events intensify, it is crucial to make Mumbai a sponge city by conserving and creating green areas that soak rainwater. For this, it is essential to identify and understand the varying degrees of wetness across the creeks, mangroves, mudflats, and saltpans that make up the natural terrain. Read it here.

For many in Mumbai who lived through or know of the devastating flood on July 26-27, 2005, every monsoon brings back the nightmare. Architect-writer-visualiser Shivani Dave meets some of the affected people and visits the worst impacted sites of flooding – only to discover that little has changed on the ground, making rain anxiety a reality that many are forced to live with. Those living in informal settlements, the homeless, the millions of commuters, show great anxiety about a possible repeat whenever heavy rains hit the city. Read it here.

In this set of three interviews, multimedia journalist Jashvitha Dhagey speaks to three experts about the Mumbai floods and if the city is better placed to handle another extreme rain situation. Architect and academic Shweta Wagh, planner Lubaina Rangwala, and activist Stalin D talk about the need to go beyond the quick-fixes to prevent flooding, study it in the context of urban planning and development control rules in the city, and take a holistic approach to rejuvenate the Mithi river. Read it here.

In the News Digest section, read our curation of stories on cities and environment from around the world.

Hope you find the essays engaging and worthwhile. Write to us at [email protected] and lend us a hand by having your folks subscribe to Question of Cities.

Thank you,
Smruti 
July 26, 2024