Urban Flooding in India: A Man-Made Disaster Amplified by Climate Change
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Geography (Indian Monsoon, River Systems); Environment (Climate Change, Extreme Weather Events); Disaster Management.
Mains:
General Studies Paper 1 (Geography): Urbanization, their problems and their remedies; Important Geophysical phenomena such as floods.
General Studies Paper 3 (Disaster Management & Environment): Disaster and disaster management; Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.
Key Highlights from the News
Recent heavy rains and floods in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana caused extensive damage.
Due to climate change, the nature of monsoon rains is changing. Concentrated bursts of extremely heavy rain over a short period intensify the impact of floods.
The article strongly argues that excessive rain is only one reason, and that governance failures and infrastructural weaknesses are actually increasing the intensity of the disaster.
Major Failures: Examples include unmaintained gates at Prakasam Barrage, weak flood bunds, encroached drains in cities, and a lack of pre-emptive water level control in dams.
While India's disaster response system is excellent in rescue operations, it still lags in risk reduction.
As a solution, it is necessary to pre-emptively control water levels in dams using real-time hydrological modeling, prioritize drainage systems in urban planning, and ensure continuous maintenance of infrastructure.
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