‘We Are Stuck With The Same Problem’: Why Gurugram Can’t Escape Urban Flooding Every Year?

Gurugram is rain affected as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a heavy rain alert in Delhi-NCR which is also impacting Noida, Ghaziabad, and the Millennium City. Intermittent rains causing torrential monsoon rain in Gurugram, led to extreme waterlogging and traffic jam with reports of seven-kilometres long block on roads. 

The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) ordered the complete shutdown of schools and colleges, and the closure of offices, advising companies to work from home. Flights operations were also suspended by Delhi airport due to visibility problems and waterlogging on the roads which connect to airports. The IMD also put red alerts out for flash floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, with Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir under an orange alert.

A resident of Gurugram described the daily grind to NewsX: “Gurgaon has a big connectivity road, MG Road which is one of the key corridors connecting Delhi to Gurgaon. Thousands of corporate employees take this route every evening, and it gets congested. But in the monsoon, waterlogging increases the traffic problem due to lack of drainage. In those days, it would be better for companies to provide permission for work from home.”. My appeal to the government is that they enhance the drainage system. Each monsoon we are stuck with the same problem.” she said.

Why does Gurugram flood every year?

Gurugram actually floods every monsoon and for a corporate city that has just undergone rapid urbanization, experts believe that there are many reasons for it; flyovers constructed badly (in relation to drainage), short durations of intense rainfall, clogged storm water drains full of plastic waste, and urbanization things have not improved typified by multi-story apartments, increases in vehicle ownership, and diminished open spaces and the absorption of runoff water has nowhere to go. 

What is Urban Flooding in India?

Urban flooding is not new in India if there is high rainfall that outgrows the drainage capacity of urban infrastructure. This keeps on causing water logging on the road, submergence of low-lying colonies, and will cause a mess in daily life. This is because of rainwater runoff that outgrows the capacity of absorption and drainage of the city, resulting in flooding of streets, residential, and commercial areas.

Know the causes of Urban Flooding

Urban floods are a result of an aggregate of poorly planned urbanization, rapid construction, filling water bodies, filled in the channels for water to flow, and poor ability to handle solid waste. Primarily, plastic waste and garbage will simply block the flow of stormwater and can result in widespread waterlogging. Climate change and heavy rainfall events do not help the situation either. The extent of urbanization and indiscriminate opening and closing of water channels means that the gap between planning the city and sustainably planning the city, has exacerbated the risk for flooding.  

Climate Change and Urban Flooding in India

Climate change has made rainfall heavier, more frequent and intense, which has led to more flooding episodes more frequent and/or stronger. The greater creation of impervious surfaces (e.g., roads, buildings, etc.) limit natural water uptake and increase surface runoff. Poor and/or blocked storm drains worsen the situation in urban flooding and exacerbate natural water run-off in rain events. Indeed, the threat posed by urban flooding had increased manifold in recent years.

Recently in India there have been significant flood events in Hyderabad (2020, 2021); documented also in Chennai (November 2021); Bengaluru and Ahmedabad (2022); even pockets of Delhi (July, 2023); Nagpur (September, 2023), all of which displaced many of their residents. This extends to many smaller towns such as Chandigarh, Gurugram, Patna, Pune, Jaipur, Bhopal, Lucknow, Kochi, and even Hill Stations (with flood danger potential), Dehradun and Shimla. In October 2023, flash floods obliterated almost all of the towns in Sikkim, lost lives, and caused massive damage.

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