11 Dead as 3-Storey Building Collapsed During Monsoon Flashfloods in India

Following heavy rains in Mumbai, India, a decaying structure fell, killing at least 11 people and wounding seven others, authorities said in Thursday.

One needs to go no farther than the city's rapid pace of building to see the major cause of recurrent floods. Mumbai is constantly expanding horizontally and vertically, and large-scale development is a regular occurrence in the metropolis.

This has two effects on flooding: first, when more natural space is converted to a built-up area, the land's inherent capacity to absorb water and keep it from gathering in one spot is lost.

Second, building debris and garbage plug drains and nullahs, preventing run-off water from leaving.

Mumbai's failure to adequately drain rainwater is due to the city's outdated drainage infrastructure, which cannot cope with the amount of rainfall that the city experiences on days like this. The city's almost century-old stormwater drainage system includes a 2,000-kilometer network of surface drains and a 400-kilometer network of subterranean drains.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in a report submitted in the state Assembly on July 2, notes that "they [drains] are highly silted and perforated in numerous places." In addition, "High tides impact their outfall to the sea because 42 of 45 outfalls lack flood gates."

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