As an island city with the sea to its west and a wide creek to its east, Mumbai has always had large swathes of wetlands, marshes and mangrove forests to absorb flood waters during monsoon downpours. It is also a city built on a rich network of natural canals and four rivers to serve as drains.But decades of indiscriminate reclamation and construction have taken a toll on Mumbai’s natural water percolation systems, and its impact is now increasingly apparent with every monsoon. Disregard for appropriate urban planning led to the disastrous three-day Mumbai floods of July 2005, and 13 years later, the city still refuses to learn its lessons.Mumbai floods: Real estate-driven city must stop blocking natural drainage channels with concretehttps://scroll.in/article/886210/mumbai-floods-the-development-crazy-city-must-stop-blocking-natural-drainage-channels-with-concrete