Account for the huge flooding of million cities in India including the smart ones like Hyderabad and Pune. Suggest lasting remedial measures.
Approach · directive: “account for / suggest”
What it asks · Explain why Indian million-plus cities, even planned ones, flood so severely, and suggest lasting structural and governance remedies.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Account for the severe flooding of million-plus cities, including those promoted as smart, such as Hyderabad and Pune
- Suggest lasting remedial measures: structural and institutional
Open with · Extreme rain meets urban growth that has paved over lakes, floodplains and drains, so intense showers turn into city-wide floods, as in Mumbai (2005), Chennai (2015) and Hyderabad (2020).
Cover
- Encroachment: lakes, nalas and floodplains have been built over, and wetlands lost, such as Hyderabad's lakes and Chennai's Pallikaranai marsh, removing natural sponges.
- Paved surfaces and weak drains: concrete raises runoff, while old, undersized and clogged stormwater drains, choked by waste and silt, cannot cope with cloudbursts.
- Weather and climate: intense short-duration rain, cyclonic systems, tidal lock in coastal cities and climate change raise extremes.
- Governance gaps: fragmented agencies, weak master plans, lax enforcement of building rules and poor coordination of reservoir releases, as at Chembarambakkam in 2015.
- Structural remedies: restore lakes and wetlands, protect floodplains and natural drains, expand and desilt stormwater networks, and add retention ponds, permeable surfaces and rainwater harvesting.
- Institutional: apply NDMA's 2010 urban flooding guidelines, make flood-risk zoning and drainage plans binding, and put drains under one authority with real-time forecasting.
- People and services: solid-waste management, early warning and awareness, and insurance and relief for low-lying settlements.
Close with · Lasting relief needs cities to give rain space to go — restored water bodies, integrated drainage and enforced land-use rules — rather than relying on relief after each flood.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2020, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 261 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Mumbai (2005), Chennai (2015), Hyderabad (2020) and Pune show one pattern: intense rain falling on cities that have paved over the lakes, floodplains and drains that once absorbed it.
Why million-plus cities flood
- Lost sponges: lakes, nalas and floodplains have been built over and wetlands filled, as with Hyderabad's lakes and Chennai's Pallikaranai marsh, so rain has nowhere to go.
- Runoff and drains: concrete raises runoff, while old, undersized and silted stormwater drains choked with waste cannot pass a cloudburst; smart-city upgrades to roads and services do not fix a drainage network laid decades ago.
- Extreme weather: short intense showers, cyclonic systems, tidal lock in coastal cities and climate change raise the extremes.
- Governance: fragmented agencies, weak master plans, lax enforcement of building rules and poorly timed reservoir releases, as at Chembarambakkam in 2015.
Lasting remedies
- Give rain room: restore lakes and wetlands, protect floodplains and natural drains through binding flood-risk zoning, and add retention ponds, permeable surfaces and rainwater harvesting.
- Rebuild drainage: map, desilt and enlarge stormwater networks designed for today's rainfall, under a single drainage authority with real-time rain and river forecasting.
- Institutions: implement the NDMA guidelines on urban flooding (2010), make drainage master plans mandatory in city plans, and enforce building rules with penalties for encroachment.
- Services and people: solid-waste management to keep drains clear, early warning and community awareness, and insurance and relief for low-lying settlements.
Cities flood because they have taken the space where rain used to go; giving it back through restored water bodies, integrated drainage and enforced land use is the only lasting remedy.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify). UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.