How urban expansion makes Delhi susceptible to flooding

• Unchecked and ill-thought-out urban expansion is the principal reason behind chronic urban flooding in Delhi, and the larger National Capital Region (NCR).

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Water-logging also led to lengthy power cuts, property damage, and loss of life, with at least 11 people dying due to structural collapses and electrocution.
• Factors such as inadequate desilting of drains by civic authorities also play a part, but at the heart of it, Delhi is ailed by a more fundamental problem.

A rapidly growing city

• Delhi is undergoing one of the world’s fastest urban expansions. According to data from NASA’s Earth Observatory, the geographic size of Delhi almost doubled from 1991 to 2011.
• According to the United Nations’ The World’s Cities in 2018 data booklet, Delhi will overtake Tokyo as the world’s most populous city by 2030, with an estimated population of nearly 39 million, roughly two and a half times its population in 2000.

Concrete everywhere

• Construction in Delhi’s flood plains began as early as the 1900s, when the British decided to build a railway line along the river bed.
• This concretisation leaves little room for rainwater to percolate into the soil, leading to flooding.

No ‘water masterplan’

• Water bodies which can help manage flooding have also been systematically destroyed. “According to official records, Delhi has some 1,000 water bodies.