Water Logging- A Perennial Problem in Metro-cities
Due to the torrential rains in Mumbai, the metros of the country like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru have become so bad that their streets have turned into rivers, houses have been flooded and dreams have turned into tragedy. In Bengaluru, a young man fell into a manhole as soon as he got off the bus, while in Delhi, some workers died due to wall collapse. Within a few hours on May 2, the national capital received 80 mm of rain, the highest since 1901. Similarly, on May 26, Mumbai received 104 mm of rain in an hour, causing the Mithi river to overflow. As a result, Kurla was flooded and three services of the metro line had to be stopped. Eight people were killed in the floods in Kurla, including 15-year-old Ayesha, whose family's shop was destroyed in the floods. Bengaluru saw its IT corridors like Whitefield drowning due to incessant rains. "Tech City is drowning in filth," one of X's posts lamented. ’
Mumbai has the ability to send billions of dollars to other continents in a few seconds, but billionaires living in luxurious condominiums worth millions of dollars cannot move from one street to another during the monsoon. New Delhi: The capital can host the G20 summit in an area of more than three square kilometres, but its people have to live under the stinking water and mud of a discarded sewage system. Bengaluru's Vrishabhavati river stream is black and poisonous – 80% of the 180 crore litres of sewage discharged from the metropolis goes untreated. Bengaluru can connect with the whole world, but cannot dissociate itself from despair. "IT parks shine, but the flooding caused by the rains has made our shame public," one X post said in despair. "Even after 75 years of independence, more than 70 per cent of the cities in the country do not have a proper sewage system or garbage disposal system. The floods caused by heavy monsoon rains are not a sudden phenomenon, but an example of the country's ravaged rivers and blocked drainage system. There are more than 400 waterways in the country, from the Ganga to the Mahanadi. According to a shocking report this year, 46 percent of the country's 603 rivers are severely polluted. The report found 320 toxic areas in the waterways of 275 rivers. The Ganga carries 2.9 billion litres of untreated sewage with it every day, while Mumbai's Mithi river is full of mud. India's urban sewage system has collapsed under the weight of neglect. Delhi generates 380 crore litres of sewage per day, but only 260 crore litres of it is treated. Mumbai generates 210 crore litres of sewage every day, of which only half is treated. Bengaluru treats only 30% of its daily sewage.
According to a study by IIT Bombay published earlier this year, the drainage system built in the 1860s is now a waste and is of no use to the 22 million residents of the metropolis. Despite this, last year, contracts worth Rs 1,200 crore were given to shell companies to desilt drains. Bengaluru once had 800 lakes that used to absorb flood and rainwater, but most of the lakes were filled by real estate people, as a result of which their number has now come down to just seventeen. Heavy rains in May overflowed drains in Delhi, causing flood-like conditions in 170 areas, while 12,000 homes were submerged in Mumbai due to overflowing of the Mithi river. In July 2024, in a similar situation, three civil services aspirants drowned in the basement of a coaching centre in Delhi's Old Rajendra Nagar.
In the race for 'progress', which has led to the construction of new airports, highways and smart cities, our natural defence system has been destroyed. Delhi's Yamuna Expressway, built along the river's path, has affected the river's ability to hold flood waters. The Rs 27,000-crore Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru has destroyed 1,100 acres of green cover and a lake. According to the National Wetlands International report published this year, 40 percent of the wetlands in the country have been lost since 1990. Pallikaranai, Chennai, once had a swamp of 5,500 hectares, which has now been reduced to 600 hectares. The expansion of the airport is being cited as the reason. The result was a severe flood in 2023. Since 2000, open areas in urban areas have shrunk by 30 per cent, exacerbating the situation.
In fact, corruption is the root cause of all these evils. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, despite Rs 32,000 crore allocated for the Namami Gange project since 2014, 68 per cent of its sewage treatment units were found to be defunct in 2025. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation lost Rs 1,500 crore in desilting drains between 2020 and 2024, of which 60 per cent was given to non-existent companies. On the contrary, global cities offer wonderful examples. As such, Tokyo's underground reservoirs and sidewalks absorb half of the 1,500 millimeters of precipitation that occurs annually, and thus protect the city from flooding.
New York's 10,600-km-long drainage system is monitored real-time and 5 billion litres of sewage is treated. While 99 per cent of German waste is converted into energy, only 12 million tonnes of India's 62 million tonnes are treated. Japan treats 70 per cent of its waste, while in India 80 per cent of the total waste is collected in the form of mountains. Indore's waste management model and Meghalaya's Umngot conservation system show that change is possible in India too, but it requires a strong will.
(This is the author's personal opinion. )