Urban Drowning in India: A Preventable Tragedy Fueled by Poor Planning and Climate Change
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Disaster Management (Urban Flooding), Governance (National Disaster Management Authority - NDMA, Smart Cities Mission), Environment (Climate Change impacts), Social Issues (Child Safety).
Mains:
GS Paper 1: Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.
GS Paper 3: Disaster and disaster management.
GS Paper 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Key Highlights from the News
Urban drowning deaths are a significant yet often overlooked problem.
Drowning can occur not only in large bodies of water like rivers and lakes but also in open water tanks, pits, and even buckets of water.
The increasing urban flooding due to climate change makes even small drains and pits dangerous.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 75% of flood-related deaths are due to drowning.
Poor design and maintenance are the main reasons for dangerous conditions in cities.
Even major urban development projects like Smart Cities do not give enough importance to flood resilience.
In the disaster management policies of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), drowning is not sufficiently considered as a separate category.
The article argues that the government, private sector, and community must work together to solve this problem.
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