Cities are more resilient to environmental disasters, but this is not the case for India. In recent years, anomalous monsoon floods caused by climate change have posed an existential threat to 472 million Indians living in slums.
According to foreign media reports on October 30, about 65% of the 12 million residents in Mumbai, India, live in crowded slums. Their homes, made of tarpaulin and tin shacks, are difficult to resist the annual monsoon floods, and rebuilding or relocating after a disaster makes it even more difficult for some to become "climate refugees." According to the World Bank's projected data, natural disasters in India forced more than 5 million people to be displaced in 2019. And as climate change leads to frequent extreme weather, the number of "climate refugees" will continue to rise.
During the monsoon season, thousands of people in India die from flood disasters and landslides
Abnormal monsoon floods are more frequent
Slum houses are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt
Every year from June to September is India's monsoon season, and the warm and humid air changes with the seasons, moving across the Indian Ocean towards South Asia, bringing abundant rain. But climate change is causing India's monsoon season to become more extreme and unpredictable.
In recent years, the frequency and intensity of heavy rains on India's west coast have increased, with landslides, mudslides and floods triggered by monsoon rains every year killing more than 100 people and destroying thousands of homes. For India's poor, frequent and intense natural disasters make their lives even more fragile: they are neither effectively prevented nor recovered in time after them.
"I've lost four houses in the last three years." Anish Yadav said. He lives in the "Nagar" slum on the northern outskirts of Mumbai, India's financial center. On the night of July 2019, a sudden torrential rain completely destroyed his home for the first time. "My mother and I were temporarily placed in a school and the government warned us that the slums were too dangerous to live in. But we're back. Yadav said that because the government can't provide them with new houses, despite the dangers of the slums, it is always a place to stay.
Yadav and his mother's hut in the "Nagar" slum
"My house is about 10×15 feet. We lay down the stakes and tie them together and cover them with plastic sheeting. "If there is a strong wind, these stakes will still be uprooted." ”
Yadav said the house itself was fragile and all they could do to protect them was to pack all their valuables in plastic bags so they could be quickly evacuated at any time. "With constant destruction, evacuation, reconstruction, how can we live like this?"
In September, although it was the final stage of the Indian monsoon, Yadav and many residents of the slums were not spared. Their houses have been destroyed again and are now once again housed in the school. "We don't know when we can go back or build another home." He looked utterly dazed.
More than half of the population lives in slums
Governments need to see the shortcomings of cities in responding to disasters
In the face of frequent extreme weather disasters, the Indian government is stepping up efforts to raise risk awareness in cities, hoping to create more "climate-smart" cities. Ms Naran of the Centre for Science and the Environment pointed out that India's urban emergency response system is too old to deal with disasters once every 10 or 5 years, "whereas now it can happen 10 times a year". She said the government needed to improve emergency evacuation processes, redesign urban water systems and other infrastructure. This is one of the shortcomings of India's response to disaster, but the biggest shortcoming is not here.
As India's most populous city, Mumbai is home to gleaming skyscrapers and luxury hotels. But on the other hand, about 65 percent of its 12 million residents live in crowded and humble slums, like Yadav.
"Slums are on the outskirts of the city and more vulnerable to natural disasters," said Mulari Tumarukudi, acting director of the Disaster and Conflict Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme, "and they are more vulnerable to the secondary effects of floods, including disease transmission, drinking water contamination and food shortages." ”
In July 2019, the protective wall of the "Nagar" slum in Mumbai, India, was washed away by torrential rains
According to research by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), natural disasters in 2019 forced more than 5 million people in India to lose their homes. Climate experts have been warning that the climate crisis in the coming decades could lead to more than 1 billion people around the world becoming "climate refugees," and the number of people affected in India will continue to rise.
In response to slum problems, some parts of India have already taken action – for example, Odisha has built emergency storm drains in slums; Kerala has provided economic incentives to encourage residents of climate-fragile areas to move out. At the national level, however, progress by the Indian government has been very slow. According to the researchers, several ambitious slum improvement initiatives have all died over the past 20 years due to lack of funding, inadequate participation, poor planning, and red tape in government departments.
"The government promised us to get housing within 3 to 4 days of the disaster, but in reality they didn't do anything." Yadav said that unless the government provides an effective solution, the affected people have no choice but to return to the slums and rebuild their homes.
"I'm losing hope because I never know if the floods will destroy the house again." Yadav said their "tug-of-war" with floods and the government had been going on for too long.
Red Star News reporter Xu Huan intern reporter Ding Wen
Edited by Pan Li
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