Global Coastal Cities Summit: Extreme flooding, sea level rise, heat warning for city; experts urge action

Mumbai: The city is not likely to be “fully submerged” in the coming decades -- as is often claimed on social media -- the occurrence of “compound floods” will get more dire in the near future, cautioned MK Roxy Koll, a climate scientist at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

Koll, who is also a lead author of an IPCC’s special report on oceans and climate change, was speaking at the first leg of ‘Global Coastal Cities Summit’ held at Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba, on Tuesday.

The summit was jointly organised by the Maharashtra government, along with the European Union, the Consulate General of Netherlands and NGO Mumbai First.

Speakers included a number of bureaucrats and diplomats from the city and beyond, climate scientists, policymakers, urban planners and private sector stakeholders.

“Observed sea level rise for Mumbai is around 3cms every decade, and this. We have already crossed 1.1 degree of atmospheric warming globally, and are on track to cross 2 degree warming by 2040. By this time, the population of Mumbai is expected to touch around 40 crore, so if we don’t redesign our city keeping in mind these climate threats, we will be exposing many more people to flooding, sea level rise, extreme heat and rainfall and so on. Even as a scientist, I can’t imagine what 2 degrees of warming will do to the city,” Koll warned.

Jai Asundi, executive director, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, pointed out that sea-level rise in the southwestern Indian Ocean is occurring at faster rate (at least 2.5mm/year) than in other parts of the Indian Ocean (between 0-2.5mm/yr), and said that “As much as 50 sq kms of Mumbai could be inundated during annual floods if a 50cm rise in sea-levels occurs, which is a possible scenario.”

Bureaucrats laid emphasis on other aspects of Mumbai’s environmental crisis. Former MCGM commissioner Praveen Pardeshi, for example, spoke of growing protests by tribal groups in villages north of Mumbai, over water. “The rate at which the city’s population is growing, we cannot create any more dams to meet our water requirements. We have to find a way to utilise rainwater. The bulk demand for non-drinking purposes has to come from recycling treated wastewater. I don’t see any other way for the city. Thankfully the construction of sewage treatment plants has finally commenced,” he said.

P Velarasu, additional commissioner, MCGM, also spoke at length about his concerns for Mumbai. “We are sitting in the Taj Hotel, which itself could be underwater during floods in 2050. At least the basement of the hotel. That’s scary, but certain hard interventions will have to be made. With the right policy tweaks, I am sure that the city can handle this issue of climate change. For example, the Development Control and Promotion Regulation rules themselves can be redrawn to include a complete sustainability roadmap, but the political leadership needs to be ready to make some very radical decisions in this regard,” he said.

“As concerns the BMC, we are taking this issue very seriously. We have published the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), and are tackling different aspects of climate change like air pollution and flooding. Starting next year, we will also publish a separate budget detailing our expenses on such issues,” Velarasu added.