Climate change is making monsoon rains in Mumbai deadlier, mostly for poor people, according to a report released by the University of Chicago.
The case study analysed extensive data to estimate the population-wide impact of rainfall and floods on the city of 22 million people.
It provides a stark warning for other coastal megacities worldwide: climate-driven floods are an “escalating public health threat” as the heating planet is bringing heavier rains and causing sea levels to rise.
“Rainfall is leading to more deaths in Mumbai,” says the report published in Nature.
It notes that “vulnerable groups such as the poor, young children and women” are experiencing the greatest impacts.
Rainfall-driven flooding in Mumbai is responsible for roughly 8% of all deaths during the monsoon season, representing 2,300-2,700 lives lost annually between 2006 and 2015, the researchers found, a toll “comparable to cancer deaths”.
“Intense bursts of rain, and especially intense bursts combined with high tides are the deadliest,” says the report.
The impacts reflect divisions in wealth, according to the study, noting that 85% of those who “die from rainfall live in slum areas”.
“We have witnessed the impact of rainfall and flooding time and again – traffic accidents, electrocutions, drownings from rising flood waters,” said co-author Ashwin Rode.
“But with poor drainage and sanitation systems, standing floods can also trigger many after-effects ... diseases like dengue, diarrhoea, malaria can flourish.”
The report warns that without action, rising seas will amplify rainfall-driven deaths “by as much as 20% over the coming decades”. — AFP
