Tiruppur district contributes to help flood-hit Chennai people

By now, from past experiences of flooding in Chennai, it has become common wisdom that the city floods due to a combination of reasons -- its coastal geography, flat terrain, massive urbanisation on water bodies and climate change causing extreme weather patterns. What are the options that Chennai has under such vulnerabilities?

While the present government has increased the network of stormwater drains, Chennai's suburbs, added to the city from the north, south and west, remain underserviced, which is where stormwater continues to stagnate for at least four days. Officials have to rescue residents in these areas in boats. The cyclone has also shown that the role of drains is limited and shone a light on how long-term solutions would look in terms of drafting a city plan for development while protecting the paths of water flow.

Chennai now has dense urbanisation and high rises on its flood plains. Ironically, the government in the last decade has also relocated flood-affected families from the city’s core areas to the peripheries which are on the flood plains.