How flood-prone Mumbai is tackling climate change, from underground tunnels to newer sewers

Oct 6, 2021

Increasingly heavy rains in Mumbai have claimed more than 400 lives in the past decade. Image: REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

Roli Srivastava

Correspondent, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Climate Change is affecting economies, industries and global issues

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Climate Change

Harish Dadhia, the owner of a flood-prone sari shop, arranges his wares at the Hindmata market in Mumbai, India, September 7, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

A view of a traffic jam on Marine Drive in Mumbai, India, September 8, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

email Like other store owners in their busy central Mumbai market, the Dadhia brothers have long kept the bottom shelf of their sari shop empty, having learned to live with the flooding that arrives every monsoon. But next year's monsoon will be different, they hope. A new underground water reservoir - constructed directly across from the sari shop and designed to stave off floods and store water - effectively guzzled down heavy rains that pummelled Mumbai on a recent day, shopkeepers said. For once, shops in the Hindmata area were not full of stagnant water for 48 hours, they added. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Newly installed underground water pumps, designed to carry away excess water and prevent flooding, sit under a road flyover at Hindmata in Mumbai, India, September 7, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

A view of one of three floodwater storage tanks constructed in central Mumbai, India, September 7, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Subhajit Mukherjee, founder of Mission Green Mumbai, explains the functioning of rainwater harvesting pits built at a garden in Mumbai, India, September 17, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

A man walks past an electric bus in Mumbai, India, September 15, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Commuters disembark from suburban trains at Churchgate railway station in Mumbai, India, September 15, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

People shop at a crowded market a day before the start of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, September 9, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

A view of cars on a highway elevated over the Arabian Sea in Mumbai, India, September 12, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Traffic moves in front of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai building in Mumbai, India, September 13, 2021 Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Rajesh Mishra, left, stands with a fellow shopkeeper outside the Bhuleshwar market in south Mumbai, India, near where his shop flooded for the first time during heavy rains in July, September 15, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Have you read?

Lubaina Rangwala, associate director of the World Resources Institute's Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, poses for a photograph at her office in Mumbai, India, September 7, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

A view of Aarey forest – one of Mumbai’s few remaining green spaces, which was protected from being destroyed for a train parking shed – in Mumbai, India, September 12, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Munni Goud, at centre in red, and other residents of the Ambedkar Nagar slum take part in a protest demanding new housing and better protection from floods after their houses were destroyed – and Goud’s 22-year-old son killed - when a water storage retaining wall collapsed in 2019 during heavy rains in Mumbai, India, September 6, 2021. Image: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Niharika Kulkarni

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.