Unbridled construction has choked much of Mumbai’s open spaces which have acted as basins for run-off rainwater for centuries. Unfortunately, despite the devastating deluge of July 26, 2005, Mumbai seems to have learnt no lessons at all.

Public authorities, especially the BMC , has allowed rampant construction activity in already-congested areas post-26/7 with barely any thought to the fast-vanishing open spaces in the city. Experts are worried that the recent changes in law (a 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) amendment said construction can be permitted within 100metre of any area defined as a bay; the earlier restriction was 500m) ) will further dilute CRZ laws and lead to even greater flooding in the days to come.

“It is tragic that neither the Maharashtra government, nor the BMC nor MMRDA have learnt anything from the 26/7 disaster,” said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the Conservation Action Trust.

“Unplanned reclamation, construction of buildings, and diverting the course of the Mithi river were the main factors responsible for the tragedy. The construction activities are still continuing unabated,” he added.

Goenka said the BMC, through its BRIMSTOWAD project, is destroying mangroves and creating space for more buildings to come up. “All the requests flooding the Bombay high court today for the destruction of mangroves are now coming from government agencies and builders. In fact, the situation today is so bad that even 100mm of rain in a day throws the city out of action, and people are getting killed due to landslides, electrocution and flood-borne diseases such as leptospirosis,” he said.

Goenka warned the proposed coastal road will aggravate the problems of poor drainage and will lead to greater flooding of the city during the monsoons.

Environmentalist Rishi Agarwal said even after the 2005 deluge, he was not sure whether the rhetoric would translate into transformed thinking towards flood management.

“And I think we have clearly not done enough since then or even to understand water and flooding adequately. Even after a clear realization that tampering with ecosystems like the Mithi flood basin played a key role in the floods, we continue to plan infrastructure in watersheds like Aarey. Large amounts of plastic and garbage are dumped into our nullahs and rivers every day. Instead of controlling all this with a good solid waste management policy, BMC and other authorities are more interested in wasting public funds on unnecessary exercises like dredging and building retaining walls where they are not needed. The city is increasingly more concretized, leading to new flood zones emerging or worsening like in central Mumbai,” he said.

Architect and housing expert Chandrashekhar Prabhu said the mill lands of central Mumbai are a prime example of how rash construction has led to new flooding spots.

“The five dozen mills earlier had lakes and ponds inside and the entire rain water either percolated or went underground. Today, this entire rain water floods the streets after these ponds were filled up for construction,” he said.

“The result is every development and FSI increase contributes to flooding. There is a direct link between increase in the rate of development, urbanization and flooding”, said Prabhu.