While Deaths Mount, Ministry Cites Lack of Data to Tackle Floods

Why does Mumbai flood every year? The Quint filed RTIs to find out what Centre is doing to control urban flooding.

The Quint filed RTIs to find out what the Centre is doing to contain the loss of life and property due to urban flooding.

(Photo: The Quint/Susnata Paul)

After Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, now Maharashtra has been hit by severe flooding caused by the monsoon. Floods have driven more than twenty lakh people out of their homes this year, while the death toll is mounting.

What is the government doing to tackle the crisis?

The Quint filed Right To Information (RTI) applications to ascertain whether guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to tackle urban flooding were being followed, six years after they were released.

The response revealed that the Ministry of Urban Development, the nodal agency, is seriously lagging behind in terms of city flooding preparedness.

The NDMA defines urban flooding as a result of urbanisation, which leads to an expansion of land which can hold water. As water doesn’t seep underground, in the event of heavy rainfall, there is higher runoff which increases flood peaks from 1.8 to 8 times and the volume of flooding up to six times.

Click on the cities in the following graphic to understand the recurring nature of urban flooding in the country.

RTI Revelation 1: Dearth of Data

In order to kickstart the efforts to reduce the impact of urban flooding, the Ministry of Urban Development needs to have data in hand. However, in response to the RTI query seeking minutes of the meetings held by the Committee on Urban Flooding, set up by the Ministry of Urban Development, the committee admits there is no reliable data for the assessment of the flood situation. Excerpts from the minutes of the meeting read:

NDMA representatives informed that even though the Urban Development Ministry and NDMA had tried in the past to get urban flood data, no data could be obtained.

Committee on Management of Urban Flooding, 26 June 2014

Joint secretary urban development stated that even though the state governments might have some data pertaining to the rainfall/flood in particular areas, it might not be useful for the purpose of assessing/forecasting the flood situation. Joint secretary mitigation MHA was of the opinion that even the Meteorological Department data regarding rainfall might not be useful as they would have data exclusive to certain parts of the cities

Committee on Management of Urban Flooding, 26 March 2014

Who Is To Blame for Lack of Data?

Dr Surinder Kaur, Scientist at the Indian Meteorological Department, said there are approximately 3,700 stations to record rainfall across the country. “Urban flooding requires a very dense network which we currently don’t have. We are in the process of expanding operations,” Kaur said.

An IMD spokesperson said, “We do not monitor urban flooding. The ministry of urban development is the nodal ministry and should take the lead. As and when the urban ministry makes plans, we will support them entirely.”

The nodal agency doesn’t have records of states and cities which have experienced urban flooding. A query seeking the names and number of places that have faced urban flooding from 2010 to 2016 garnered the response: “The respective department has no data maintained in this regard”.

Ministry’s Response

The Quint reached out to Neeraj Mandloi, the then joint secretary urban development who attended both meetings of the committee on urban flooding.

“The reason we stopped working on collecting rainfall data is because urban development is a state subject and the 74 Constitutional amendment empowers local bodies to take action on urban flooding. Hence we decided to not go ahead with it,” Mandloi said.

If disasters are a state-subject, then why would the NDMA make guidelines at all? The ministry was made a nodal agency for a cause, but without data, it can’t roll out implementable action plans, which is its sole purpose.

RTI Revelation 2: It Took 4 Years To Set Up ‘Primary Body’

According to the September 2010 NDMA guidelines, an Urban Flooding Cell was to be set up under the Ministry of Urban Development. The committee was to be headed by the Joint Secretary Urban Development, with representation from other departments.

However, The Quint’s RTI query revealed that a 'Committee on Management of Urban Flooding' was constituted in 2014 – four years after the guidelines were issued.

In the years between 2010-2014, there were floods in Bengaluru in 2013, Delhi in 2010, 2013 and 2016, Guwahati in 2010 and 2011, Kolkata in 2013, Mumbai in 2015, Srinagar in 2014 and 2015 and Surat in 2013.

The loss of life and damage to property could have been contained had the setting up of the committee been fast-tracked.

RTI Revelation 3: Committee Has Met Only Twice Since Inception

The Committee on Management of Urban Flooding has only met twice since its inception – on 26 March 2014 and 26 June 2014. This, while losses were mounting to crores in cities which are the hubs of infrastructural development and population migration.

Source: National Institute of Urban Affairs and Assocham. (Infographic: The Quint/Liju Joseph)

Ministry’s Response

Mandloi listed three documents that detail the efforts made by the Ministry of Urban Development to curb urban flooding after 2014. First, the Urban and Regional Development Plan Formulation and Implementation Guidelines, which were finalised in 2014. Second, the Model Building Bylaws, 2016, and the most recent of the lot, the document with the SOP on Urban Flooding released in March 2017.

Director of Urban Development, Promod Kumar, declined to comment when asked why the committee wasn’t meeting regularly, and failed to confirm if it was defunct.

Experts Speak

Experts from the field say the government tends to overlook the fact that urban flooding can be tapped as a resource to benefit the environment.

Floods can be actively used to revive floodplains, recharge ground water, ponds and lakes, and for flood-water harvesting amidst other things.

Dr Suresh Rohilla, Programme Director, Urban Water Management, Center of Science and Environment

A government-appointed sub-committee, set up for the development of national sustainable habitat parameters, provided recommendations on minimising urban flooding in cities in 2012. “These guidelines were to be incorporated in policies, plans and programmes initiated by various ministries but nothing has been done yet,” said Rohilla, who was a part of the committee.

A lack of initiative by the centre has led to the issue of urban flooding not being viewed as an urgent concern, despite a staggering loss of life and property.

Interactive infographic: Shahadat Hussain

(This story was first published on 10 May 2017. It is being reposted from The Quint’s archives in the wake of the floods that are wreaking havoc in Maharashtra.)