Guwahati's flash floods: A wake-up call for sustainable urban growth

Guwahati, often hailed as the 'Gateway to the northeast', is inching towards an ecological and civic disaster.

- ABHIJIT DEB

Each monsoon brings the same grim routine—flash floods that turn bustling streets into waterways and homes into marooned islands.

The latest episode, triggered by a seemingly moderate 37 mm of rainfall in just 24 hours, left nearly half the city under water and prompted the India Meteorological Department to issue a red alert. Life came to a halt, schools shut, flights were diverted, and daily life was submerged in chaos.

Guwahati's crisis stems from decades of poorly planned urbanization. Once a city of wetlands, water bodies and forested hillocks, Guwahati's topography has been relentlessly altered.

Low-lying areas and floodplains have been reclaimed for construction. The once-natural drainage system is now a complex mess of concrete, choked drains and encroachments.

The Bahini and Bharalu rivers—crucial drainage channels—are no longer rivers but sewage-filled conduits unable to carry stormwater to the Brahmaputra.

What remains of the wetlands is shrinking every year. It has repeatedly flagged this as one of the primary causes behind the city's inability to drain even moderate rainfall.

Surrounding Guwahati are hills that historically helped contain and slow down rainfall runoff. But rampant deforestation and illegal hill-cutting for housing projects have stripped these natural barriers bare.