MUMBAI AT RISK IF SEAS KEEP RISING

A quarter of city will be underwater if the ocean rises by 1m in 100 years

HUGE swathes of the city’s beaches have been lost to rising seas. Now shanty dwellers fear for their homes and critics say India’s largest metropolis — like other world mega-cities — is not doing enough to hold back the waves.

During the monsoon, near-daily storms regularly flood Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums and home to some of the coastal city’s most vulnerable residents.

“The situation has been getting worse every year, with our homes knee-deep in water,” said Venkatesh Nadar, 38, who has lived in the shanty his entire life.

Nadar said authorities have not told him what might happen to his home as sea levels rise, or if they are doing anything to help his family move.

“It’s dangerous and worrying for our children’s future, and leaves every family living here at God’s mercy,” he said.

If a dire United Nations prediction saying that the sea could rise by 1m in the century up to 2100 because of global warming comes true, one academic report suggests a quarter of the city could be affected.

Even a 20cm rise would more than double the frequency of flooding in tropical zones, such as the Mumbai coast, according to a 2017 report by experts.

Mumbai, which British colonial rulers formed by joining seven small islands, is already vulnerable to floods because so much of it is below the high-tide line.

The shore has retreated by more than 20m at some Mumbai beaches over the past 15 years, according to studies by the Watchdog Foundation group.

Hundreds have died and billions of dollars of damage caused in floods over the past two decades — and one storm alone in 2005 left 500 dead.

The Maharashtra state government’s response has concentrated on building 20 sea walls, including four off the city, and a huge mangrove planting campaign along the state’s 720km coast.

Environmentalists, however, say the action is a half-hearted response. While mangroves are important, the loss of natural drainage systems such as rivers and creeks was also crucial, said activist Nandkumar Pawar.

He said laws meant to protect the coast have been “relaxed” so that new buildings could creep closer to the shore, covering rivers and creeks that provided an escape route for floodwaters.

Stalin Dayanand, an outspoken activist with the Vanashakti environmental group, said there had to be more natural defences.

“We are using measures which will increase conflict with nature by relying on civil engineering solutions like building walls,” he said, adding that more deaths and damage were inevitable.