Mid-Day Opinion: Money alone can’t prevent flooding

Heavy rainfall disrupts traffic and inconveniences pedestrians on Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg on July 4. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Every year, Mumbai performs the same monsoon ritual. Roads are repaired, drains are cleaned, nullahs are desilted, and review meetings assure citizens that the city is ready for the rains. Yet, when the first heavy downpour arrives, those assurances are often washed away, exposing the gap between preparation on paper and performance on the ground.

The Maharashtra government's Rs 13,000-crore flood mitigation package is the latest attempt to break this cycle. The investment is necessary. Mumbai has outgrown its ageing drainage network, while climate change has made rainfall more intense and unpredictable. Building a more resilient city will require significant public spending. The real question is not whether to spend more, but whether the money will finally translate into infrastructure that works when the rains arrive.

Yet, over the last two decades, Mumbai has failed to learn one simple lesson: money alone cannot stop floods. Without timely execution, accountability and quality work, even the biggest budgets become little more than expensive promises.

After the July 26, 2005 deluge, the Chitale Committee identified the causes and recommended measures to prevent a repeat. Since then, successive governments have spent thousands of crores on flood-control projects. Stormwater drains have been widened, pumping stations built, the Mithi river cleaned and nullahs desilted, all with the promise of making Mumbai flood-resilient.

The challenge has changed dramatically since 2005. Mumbai is denser, more concretised, and less capable of absorbing rainwater as wetlands, mangroves and open spaces have steadily disappeared. Rainfall has also become more erratic, with short bursts of intense rain overwhelming even upgraded drainage systems, while high tides often prevent water from draining into the sea.

That raises an uncomfortable question: if the problems were identified more than two decades ago, why do they still persist?

The answer is not that Mumbai has spent too little. It is that too many good plans have lost momentum after the announcements were made.

Governments have rarely failed to announce projects or allocate funds. They have too often failed to complete them on time, maintain them properly and fix responsibility when they fall short. Flood management is a marathon, not a series of ribbon-cutting ceremonies. It demands coordination across agencies, continuity across political terms and regular maintenance. Too often, governments celebrate new projects while neglecting existing infrastructure.

That is Mumbai's real "missing link" in flood management, not money, technology or engineering, but the link between planning and execution. Reports have identified the problems and budgets have been sanctioned. What has been missing is the discipline to complete projects on time and hold people accountable when they fail.

Perhaps Mumbai's biggest flood is not on its roads but in its files. Year after year, official records declare the work complete. Yet the rain tells a different story. Water does not read government reports. It reveals whether the work on the ground matches the claims on paper.

That is why the Rs 13,000-crore package should not be judged by the size of its allocation but by its results. It will not be measured by announcements or foundation stones. It will be measured on the day Mumbai faces its next cloudburst. If Mumbai's chronic flood-prone locations remain functional during the next cloudburst, the investment will have proved its worth. If the same roads and junctions go under water again, another bigger package will simply become another bigger announcement.

Nobody expects Mumbai to become flood-free overnight. Even the world's best cities struggle during extreme weather events. While floods may be inevitable, many of the factors that turn heavy rain into a civic disaster are entirely within human control. Mumbai has never lacked plans or money. What it has lacked is the resolve to honour its promises and the discipline to finish what it starts. The rain does not judge promises, budgets, or review meetings. It judges only what has been delivered on the ground.

Poor planning, weak maintenance, delayed execution, and the absence of accountability are not acts of nature. They are failures of governance. As Mumbai prepares for more intense and unpredictable monsoons, the city certainly needs deep pockets to build resilient infrastructure. But deeper than the government's pockets must be its commitment to planning, timely execution, regular monitoring, and accountability. After all, money can build drains. Only good governance can keep Mumbai dry.

Sanjeev Shivadekar is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @SanjeevShivadek

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