Floods in London are the latest sign big cities aren't ready for climate change
Cars stranded in streets turned to rivers. Bus passengers rescued by raft. Train stations submerged, sparking travel chaos. The now-familiar scenes of a city inundated by floods played out in London over the weekend, when heavy rainfall put parts of the UK capital underwater. When two London hospitals turned non-emergency patients away after getting flooded over the weekend, it was a brutal reminder that even some of the world's richest cities are dangerously unprepared for the kind of extreme weather that is becoming more common and more severe because of climate change. Climate and infrastructure experts have been warning for years that London, like many other large cities, isn't ready for climate change, with large parts of the city built on a flood plain and a Victorian drainage system that is unable to withstand this kind of intense rain. According to the Greater London Authority, 17% of London is facing either high or medium risk of flooding, with more than 1 million Londoners live in a flood plain. The city has built a giant flood defense system on the river Thames to protect itself from tidal flooding, but the barriers are of little help when it comes to flash flooding caused by sudden heavy rainfall -- the sort that is becoming more common because of rising temperatures.
I think this is going to be the same for old, big cities everywhere. First, old infrastructure and planning. Like Victorian drains. Secondly, overcrowding in cities with more people moving there for jobs, more housing build on flood plains and regions where former lakes existed - which would then flood with excessive raining.
This is what is happening in Indian cities like Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai (Madras). British rule era infrastructure in many cases, overcrowding and huge populations, corrupt governments and local bodies leading to houses being built on flood plains and areas that block off the water that should run into lakes and the sea. All of this is leading to more and more incidents of flooding and loss of life every year. Even without climate change, this would be bad with regular rain. With climate change, I can only imagine it’s going to be much worse.
The same happening in New York, Berlin, Zhengzhou in China. If first world countries are finding it hard to deal with, it’s going to be all the more brutal for third world countries with their lack of resources.
If it was just brown and black people in third world countries affected by these climate disasters - predominantly caused by Western countries - no one would care. But considering the western world is getting a demonstration of nature’s anger, here’s hoping governments take it seriously and enact legislation. And more time and effort is spend by local governing bodies to figure out how to limit the flooding damage - if that means demolishing structures build on flood plains, do it. That could be the only option at this point.
