Cyclone coinciding with high tide will devastate Mumbai, says expert

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 2

Cyclone Nisarga coinciding with high tide could cause massive flooding in Mumbai and surrounding low-lying areas according to Climate Scientist Roxy Mathew Koll of the Centre for Climate Change Research, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

In a series of tweets, Koll said cyclone coinciding with high tide in Mumbai (could) “work together to flood a city that is already clogged. All these events overlap as a ‘compound event’ on a rising sea level in the background,” Koll said.

“IMD has forecast a moderate cyclone strengthening up to 100 kmph. It’s not just the direct impact of the winds that we need to worry about. Forecasts indicate heavy rains up to 200 mm and INCOIS has forecast storm surges with waves of 3-6 meters as Nisarga approaches landfall,” he added.

According to the scientist, the city’s natural defences like mangroves and rivers have been “squeezed out …. for expanding roads, buildings, and the airport.

Hence when heavy rains lash over a city like Mumbai which has lost its flood plains and defences, the flooding gets prolonged…”

Koll citing a recent assessment by scientists at Mumbai’s Indian Institute of Technology said the city’s floods were more of a management problem.

“We need early warning systems that integrate the multiple climatic elements and human demographics and land use — and we need flood management policies to be implemented,” he added.