The inundation of our cities has been an annual event, phased across the span of the monsoons. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai have been the most consistent ones. This year however they did not wait for the monsoons, pre monsoon showers have flooded them. The basic plan for building a city is its drainage, as we level or obstruct the natural contours we need to make way for water and it’s not that complicated, water follows a predictable and regular route. The problem is when we choose to deny it. Mushrooming unauthorized constructions, often over natural water bodies, the political system being taken over by the real estate mafia and still worse is the failure of basic municipal function. Chocked storm water drains, or connecting them to sewage drains, and even not following the hierarchy of drains. The system is arrogant enough to refuse to learn from their annual experience, and the people don’t agitate partly because they are too busy and partly because the burden is uniformly distributed. The problem can only grow with rising rural migration, and no urban capacity building. The 100 smart cities program is a long forgotten joke.
