India: How a ‘global vision’ for cities have compromised liveability - the example of Hyderabad's floods

By Hema Vaishnavi

Its been over a month since Hyderabad flooded, and there are still areas in the city which continue to deal with its aftermath with rainwater yet to recede. While Hyderabad continues its infrastructural development under the rubric of missions like the Smart City mission, it remains ill-equipped to deal with its annual rainfall, let alone extreme rainfall events like the recent floods.

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Hyderabad is not alone in facing the repercussions of human-induced climate change. Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai have all experienced damaging levels of flooding. The latter two also contend with a depleting groundwater supply and various cities have been experiencing intolerable heat waves. This, along with Delhi’s out-of-control air pollution, reinforces that this is not a problem unique to Hyderabad, but rampant across India.

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The idea of infrastructure development for a metropolitan has, so far, meant the metro, bridges, roads and buildings, which today represents civic infrastructure. However, what is often overlooked are energy, water, spatial, and people’s infrastructures.

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The 2020 Master Plan and CDA Master Plan are examples of how the civic infrastructure has been prioritised over water infrastructure and resilience measures. In fact, the 2020 Master Plan states that the cost of a new and improved drainage system have to be borne by the people living in the area and that ‘there is no way whatsoever to meet these costs.’