With onset of monsoon, Mumbai at risk of floods amid COVID-19 woes

News

PANORAMA

Feedback

1/8

2/8

3/8

4/8

5/8

6/8

7/8

8/8

Mumbai received India's second integrated flood-warning system after Chennai. Monsoon is expected to hit coronavirus-ravaged Mumbai on June 13 or 14. Mumbai accounts for nearly 25% of India's COVID cases. It has surpassed Wuhan in the number of cases already. At the same time, Mumbai is bracing for the monsoon which arrives with the risk of flooding, water logging and water-borne diseases. The healthcare system of India's financial capital is already overburdened with rising coronavirus cases. Will it be a double blow for the Maximum city?

Story and pics: Rachit Goswami

Towards the end of the month of April, Maharashtra government amended its lockdown guidelines to allow pre-monsoon work in Mumbai. This year monsoon is predicted to hit Mumbai in mid-June. Usually, pre-monsoon work starts in March but this time BMC was left with one and a half months to complete the pre-monsoon work.

Pre-monsoon work was allowed only in non-containment zones and BMC allowed work only at existing work sites.

Flooded areas during monsoon are usually the ones close to Mumbai's Mithi River. Finishing the desilting of Mithi river before onset of monsoon is challenging, but BMC claims to have finished 80 percent of the job.

Trimming of tree branches along the roads is being done to avoid any accident during monsoon.

Placing of quarry stones needs to be done before monsoon hits when the sea will flood the coastline of Mumbai. Approximately 300 workers have been working on the Coastal Road Project to achieve this. In May, there were approx 500 workers working on the same.

Every civic work like road repairs etc has to be completed keeping physical distancing in mind. This too has affected the pace of work. BMC claims to have brought the majority of road work projects to a safe stage.

Cleaning of storm water drains usually starts from the month of March and requires manual cleaning of the drains. Besides time lost during lockdown, pre-monsoon work now faces labour problems. Migrant labour has started returning to home states. This has increased the chances of the city getting flooded during monsoon.