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Did Mumbai really drown?

Kalpana Sharma

Will the misery of the monsoon turn out to be a blessing in disguise?

— PHOTO: AP

REGULAR OCCURRENCE: A Mumbai street after Monday's rain.

THE SUN shone on Friday and Mumbai slipped off the national news. But did it deserve to be there in the first place? This is a question many of us, who have lived in Mumbai for decades, are beginning to ask. Is the problem we face this year exceptional or are we made to feel this way because the national media, the electronic media in particular, have discovered it?

Those who have lived in Mumbai for more than two decades are familiar with the way the monsoon affects the city. You wade through knee-deep or ankle-deep water on your way to work, walk on slushy roads, struggle to keep your umbrella from turning upside down, sit in stinking and wet taxis, travel by the train and bus where you must wear a raincoat inside because the elements feel free to enter, rejoice that schools and colleges have been closed, bless the fact that you suddenly get a day off in the middle of the week. That is what the monsoon has always been for the Mumbai resident. The temperatures are lower, the humidity is higher, the sky is overcast, clothes don't dry, trains run slower, the predictable areas are flooded but life goes on. People go to work, go to movies and plays, and restaurants and visit each other.

None of this is breaking news. It is life — during a monsoon. The problems of course have become graver in a city that is growing without plan or purpose, where there is a gaping chasm between official pronouncements and actual implementation. Where the gaze of the policymakers is fixated on a distant dream while the city they live in falls apart. Where the word "planning" itself has become a joke as norms are flagrantly violated and the cityscape goes through rapid and irreversible changes. All this has meant that what was "normal" during the monsoon has now become a crisis. When roads get flooded, the water does not recede as fast. Areas that knew no inundation before now experience the travails of submergence.

So when it began to rain on Sunday, and then refused to stop, was there any reason to panic? The only reason people did panic was because of their memories of July 26, 2005, when the floods were sudden and unexpected in their ferocity. When the city was unprepared. When most people presumed it was a "normal" monsoon day. Instead it turned into a nightmare that stretched out over two days.

Since then, some lessons were learned. The Mithi river, held responsible for the flooding, has been cleaned up to a considerable extent, the regular desilting of drains was almost done before the rain set in, the police were around to direct traffic, there was a disaster management cell that worked, even if inefficiently, municipal workers stood by open manholes to prevent people from falling in, emergency numbers were broadcast continuously, warnings were sent out on cell phones.

What was not done was a check on the dumping of construction debris. With so much building activity in different parts of the city, this is one thing that causes drains to clog far more effectively than plastic bags. As a result, the drains simply did not carry away the rainwater even though the precipitation was normal for this time of the year. The areas that flood every monsoon were submerged. But so were other areas that usually escape flooding.

Better consciousness

The main difference this year was a greater consciousness among the citizens. July 26, 2005, was a wake-up call not just to the city's authorities but also to the people. Mumbai's middle class, in particular, is notoriously complacent. Municipal elections draw the lowest voter turnout in areas where they live. Most of them have no idea who their corporator or ward officer is. Last year's flood changed that. It forced people who had never bothered with matters civic to engage in them because floodwaters are quite democratic; they affect almost all classes.

The other difference this year is the existence of the Right to Information Act. A campaign to use it to force the municipal authorities to answer questions is already under way. Ward officers and Municipal Corporators have been receiving calls from people who never contacted them before. And people are demanding answers. They are also using the media's compulsion to fill up 24 hours of airtime to get across their points of view.

If this vigilance and concern lasts until the municipal election of 2007, then Mumbai might well see the beginning of a more effective form of governance where those who are elected are held to account by informed and active citizens' groups. In that case, the misery of the monsoon might well turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

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