There was pre-monsoon rain, and parts of Mumbai flooded. The monsoon arrived earlier than its usual landing of early-to-mid June, and the city flooded all over again. The monsoon’s march means there will be more flooding before we can forget about it till next year. Every time it rains heavily for more than an hour or so, Mumbaikars brace for flooding and all the disruptions and pain that it brings. This state of affairs will, sadly, continue.

Typically, there follow debates about monsoon preparedness or the lack of it, allegations by the opposition parties of shoddy work done, a few expert takes on what measures should have been taken, stories about how the Mithi River work is shockingly slow and marked by corruption 20 years after it contributed to the July 2005 floods, and the authorities show pictures of sewage cleaning and stormwater drain desilting and so on. This too will continue.

To be clear-eyed about this, Mumbai will flood more, not less, in the coming decades. This is because its plans enable flooding, because waterlogging was intentionally or otherwise built into the plans, and because flood-proof measures are limited to largely avoid waterlogging and do not address flooding comprehensively. I would be happy to be proved wrong, of course, but the decisions and approaches do not inspire confidence in the city’s authorities.

First, a few words about monsoon preparedness. In a nutshell, this is like putting icing on a cake that does........

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