​Falling behind: On Mumbai and the monsoon

The southwest monsoon has been highly active over western India, with southwesterly winds loaded with moisture sweeping over the Western Ghats and delivering intense rains along the Konkan coast, while other weather systems offshore are routing more moisture over Mumbai and the surrounding areas. In urban areas in general, rainfall intensity matters more than volume. Mumbai itself can generally absorb moderate rainfall over several hours; however, its drainage — like in many Indian cities — cannot handle several hundred millimetres in short bursts. Heavy rainfall also overwhelmed river catchments in parts of Maharashtra, including around Nashik, while high tides reduced the efficiency of Mumbai’s stormwater drainage, worsening flooding in the city. Mumbai-Pune rail services were suspended after landslides in the Bhor Ghat and flights were affected. The closures of the Mumbai-Pune expressway and the Mumbai-Goa highway and significant flooding on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad expressway were disruptive, speaking to the increasing erraticity of monsoon rainfall, the vulnerabilities associated with linear infrastructure projects, and the ease with which the effects of natural disasters are compounded by cascading failures. A chawl collapse in Mankhurd took the lives of five children.