Mumbai is no new witness to floods, the city has been facing heavy monsoons from as far as memory can recall, but what makes the city flood like it does now?

Oshiwara river bridge near Ram Mandir station during the 2017 Mumbai floods. Source: www.mumbaipaused.blogspot.in

Any habitation is supposed to make room for elemental flow, and while people construct their houses with ‘best Vaastu practices’, cities often forget the basic natural elements when it comes to planning. If we do not leave out channels for water to flow, it will start to fill and expand into the nearest available spaces.

Condition of Mulund Station during the heavy rains. This is what happens when we block the natural drainage patterns.

Considering the situation of Mumbai, our rivers are choked with plastics, construction debris and are hardly desilted. These natural drainage channels, which have seen alterations in their natural course because of human encroachment (the Mithi river has been made to do C turn to accommodate the Mumbai airport), are then rendered useless. [5]

Mithi River flowing within concrete walls erected after 2005 floods near the airport. Image taken during the recce for our Mumbai Water Walks project.

The Mangroves and Natural Forests of Mumbai, which are under extreme threat from urbanisation and expansion, are the best natural defences from coastal erosion and flood situations. The mangroves as well as SGNP – Aarey Forests have extreme potential to absorb and channelize excess rainfall into the ground, thereby also increasing the city’s underground water potential. But if the Maharashtra government has it’s way, they will soon hack into the Aarey forests and uproot 2298 trees to build a workshop for the metro. [6] The Aarey forest is the most important catchment area of the Mithi river. If we really want to make our city more resilient to climate events, we need to resist this move and save our saviours.

Illustration from Slogan Murugan’s ‘Mumbai Friday Release’ series with illustrator Amol Prabhakar Urankar.

A ban on plastics was introduced by the government soon after the 2005 floods, realising the massive issues of clogging and ocean waste being created. Every now and then the sea comes and gives us back our share of the waste, something that individual groups have been doing a remarkable job at cleaning up, but is that what we want to keep on doing? The ban though has failed to curb the use of plastics, and we the people are to be blamed as much as the government in this case. It is our equal duty to change our habits to keep our city free from plastic waste.

Plastics that clog our drains, visible on the streets after the rainwaters receded. Image by Priyans Murarka.