Risk Management

1. The World Bank: Risk and Opportunity
Increasing Resilience towards Flooding in Mumbai city
CHINMAY CHAUHAN, Singapore

2. Managing Risks from Climate Changes
● Levels of risk in many global cities are likely to grow due to a
combination of population growth, development and rising intensities of
extreme weather events
● Managing risks from extreme events will be a crucial component of
climate change adaptation.
● This resource aims at researching the causes and the exploring possible
solutions to manage risk and increase resilience towards the yearly
flooding caused during monsoons in Mumbai
● Brief contents of this presentation
– About the city of Mumbai
– Mumbai flooding of 2005
– Damage caused by 2005 Mumbai floods
– Increasing resilience and managing risk in advance
– Possible and plausible solutions

3. Mumbai – The biggest city in India
● Mumbai is the largest city in India with population in excess of 20 million
● Island city: surrounded by Arabian Sea and other creeks on all sides

4. Mumbai
● Mumbai is the financial, commercial and entertainment capital of India.
● It is also one of the world's top ten centres of commerce in terms of
global financial flow, generating 5% of India's GDP, and 70% of capital
transactions to India's economy.

5. Monsoon Flooding in Mumbai
● Mumbai is prone to flooding and witnesses severe disruptions almost
annually
● Flooding is an every year Phenomenon in Mumbai caused mainly due to
poor drainage systems and rapidly increasing urban population, which
puts pressure on the existing infrastructure
● For example, between 2004 and 2007, Mumbai experienced flooding
each summer. But in July 2005, the city experienced the worst flooding
in its recorded history.
● The city receives around annual rainfall of around 2400 mm. Storm
water discharges to Arabian Sea/Thane Creek through road side drains,
minor nallas (drains) and major nallas.

6. Public Transportation in Mumbai
● Local trains and BEST buses are
the life line for the people of
Mumbai
● They form the mode which
majority of the middle class and
lower class people use for day-
to-day travel
● They are highly vulnerable to
monsoon and a day of heavy
rainfall can bring both the roads
and railways in Mumbai to a
standstill, which eventually
paralyses the movement in the
city
Local Trains
BEST public buses

7. Mumbai Floods of 2005
● The city receives average annual rainfall of around 2400 mm
● Storm water discharges to Arabian Sea/Thane Creek through road side
drains. The Storm Water Drainage (SWD) system in Mumbai City is
more than 100 years old
● Before urbanization and development 40% of urban storm water was
flowing through open lands. Now after development 90% storm water is
flowing through drains & 10% water is flowing through open lands.
● On July 26, 2005, the highest ever rainfall recorded in the last 100 years
in the country battered suburban Mumbai and Mumbai city, which were
the worst floods in history of Mumbai
● The continuous rainfall resulted in urban flash flooding

8. In Pictures – Mumbai Floods (July'05)

9. Damage caused by the 2005 Floods
● 447 casualties were reported in Mumbai
● 40,000 commercial establishments damaged.
● Vehicles Damaged - 30,000
● Heavy rains led to the closure of the airport
● Electricity supply was stopped in most parts of Mumbai’s Suburbs
● Submergence of railway tracks leading to stopping of railways
● Many landslides of small hills all over the city resulted in loss of lives and
property.

10. Impact on the Marginalized poor population
● Mumbai has many slums on the banks of Mithi River (15km in length)
● Mithi river is supposed to lead the drainage water into the Arabian sea.
But due to massive settlements and encroachments, most of the river
area has been taken over for industrial or residential purposes

11. Impact on the Marginalized poor population
● Mithi river experiences regular flooding due to this, but the floods of
2005 had a catastrophic impact on the slums on the banks of the river.
● Estimated total household damage costs due to floods for the
marginalized sections were around 235 million USD.
● Besides the damage there was also lost income due to the labour
manhours lost due to total shutdown of the city
● Every year flooding causes great economic loss in addition to the loss
of lives and livelihood, specially to the poor amongst affected population
● It’s of extreme importance to reduce and control the economic losses
due to the floods i.e. becoming more resilient

12. Becoming Resilient and Effective Risk Management
Reducing direct losses from floods
● Reduce building vulnerability through building upgrades and renovation
● Widening existing waterway and river beds. Maintaining and freeing river
beds. Ex: Mithi river bed can be widened by removing the encroached
area settlements and also some of the industries alongside the river.
● Early warning systems and evacuation schemes can help prevent the
loss of lives and help reduce property loss and damage.
● Improving drainage systems and existing transportation infrastructure,
so that excess rains do not disrupt the public transport services

13. Becoming Resilient and Effective Risk Management
Reducing indirect losses from floods
● Indirect losses refer to the losses due to loss of man hours, disruption of
economy, loss of industry production during re-construction period etc.
● Government can try to increase the construction sector production
capacity, which eventually reduces the duration needed for re-
construction of the damaged households and properties. This means
that recovery is faster and thus the opportunities lost are lesser.
● Introduce easy insurance schemes backed by government for the poor
sections of the society to reduce the risk they face from the natural
disaster.

14. Policies to increase infrastructure resilience in Mumbai
Public transport
● Infrastructure development would be
funded through a combination of taxation
and public investment.
● Build the planned transport well above
the sea-level as opposed to underground.
Ex: Mumbai metro has been planned to
be above the ground for most areas
Mumbai Metro
Building Codes
● Amend existing building regulations and
introduce new regulations where necessary
to ensure that in 20 years’ time all floodplain
buildings are on stilts
● Unauthorized colonies/slums must be
prevented.
Slums of Dharavi, biggest slum in Asia

15. Policies to reduce the flood hazard risks
Insurance
● Insurance should be a public investment
since this is a govt. financed scheme
● A government scheme aimed at low-
income households and the informal
sector.
Disaster Management
● The formation and coordination of a
‘disaster management’ cell – including
government, emergency services,
logistics and weather-forecast services.
● It would also involve the building of
designated safe shelters, as well as
targeted communication and education
to relevant sectors of the population
Emergency Response
● The definition of high-risk priority
areas, the enforced movement of people
living in those areas, the location and
development of alternative settlements
and the restoration of vacated areas.

16. Conclusion: Using Risk Management to Cope with Flood
Hazard and Increase Resilience
● The Mumbai floods of 2005 prompted the government to take steps
towards managing such extreme events in the future, however with little
success.
● Government can use different policies as suggested in this report which
broadly fit into the Knowledge, Protection, Insurance, Coping activities
as discussed in the course
● Mumbai still suffered from floods in July, 2014, although the impact was
severe, which can possibly be attributed to the government's efforts over
the past 9 years.
● We conclude that managing flood-risk effectively in the scope of Mumbai
can help reduce economic loss as well as the loss of lives and property.
The benefits of steps we take today will be realized in the future.

17. References
● http://mdmu.maharashtra.gov.in/pdf/Flood/statusreport.pdf
● http://www.mca4climate.info/_assets/files/Mumbai_final.pdf
● http://icfr2013.ex.ac.uk/papers/E1_Sorensen.pdf
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra_floods_of_2005
● http://www.corfufp7.eu/jahia/webdav/site/corfu/users/batijel8/public/ExeterMeeting15-
16April2010/CaseStudies/05_Mumbai.pdf
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai
● http://www.rcuwm.org.ir/En/Events/Documents/Workshops/Articles/8/7.pdf