Urban governance and urban floods: Storm warnings of a megacity collapse

News: Chennai witnessed 24 cm rainfall, a very high level, on December 30, 2021. This again raises questions on urban governance and management of urban floods.

What are the challenges in urban governance?

Like the 2005 Mumbai floods, there was community support and mobilization for change, but changes remained on paper.

Niti Aayog’s report on reforms in urban planning capacity in India, called four city’s to become healthy by 2030. Also, it recommended 500 priority cities to have a competitive framework, adopt participatory planning etc. But here, Urban aesthetics are prioritized over ecology and sustainability in urban planning.

The importance is given to technological tools, but not to democratically elected local governments. Their opinions are ignored.

Why is urban flood management a multidimensional problem?

All dimensions of the city from the city’s growth in affordable housing are important for adapting to future climate change. For example, 7933 urban settlements are being created across the country, but only less than half of the cities have master plans. These cities witness encroachment upon commons such as wetlands and river banks, like in Chennai and Mumbai.

There is the neglect of municipal councils, lack of empowerment, and failure to build capacity amongst municipal authorities. For example, in Chennai, after floods, the focus is on stormwater drain networks. But the commercial encroachment of marshlands is ignored. Mumbai also experienced a similar fate with encroachment on the Mithi River.

Loose metropolitan boundaries, an urban agglomeration, and unclear building regulations also create environmental problems. These lead to the problem in the management of wetlands, reservoirs, and watercourses.

What is the way forward?

A top-level department for climate change adaptation should be created which will unify all relevant departments like housing, urban development, transport, water supply etc.

There is a need for comprehensive city planning like Chennai’s plan to have a new master plan and a climate action plan.

So the need is not for a smart retrofit, but for sound, functional and a metropolitan city that can handle floods, heatwaves, pollution and mass mobility to keep the engines of the economy running.

Source: This post is based on the article “Storm warnings of a megacity collapse” published in The Hindu on 17th January 2022.