It is true that India is not good at providing or improving a proper infrastructure, more due to corruption...
After New Orleans was flooded during Katrina in 2005, a lot of money went into improving the infrastructure... They built new pumping stations and improved the levees.... However, just a couple of week's ago, many of these pumps failed during a major storm and New Orleans was flooded again!!!! And they are yet to be fixed!... And with heavy rains expected due to Harvey, the city will face similar flooding.... When 2 major cities in the US can hardly handle the wrath of nature, it is not surprising that a city like Mumbai, with such a large population and a poor infrastructure, is impacted.... Of course, the Mumbaikars and India deserve better. Naguesh Bhatcar ________________________________ From: Goanet <[email protected]> on behalf of Eugene Correia <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 5:50 PM To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! Subject: Re: [Goanet] Heavy rains in Mumbai I remember that it was the rains and flooding in 2005 that a friend walked home through knee-deep water and got pneumonia. He was an asthmatic and having pneumonia made it worse. He died a few days later. Seeing the images on TV makes me both sad and angry. The lessons of 2005 were not learnt. Promoting Mumbai as India's financial city and a great metropolis is of no use when the basic infrastructure is week and vulnerable to such floods. No doubt, Houston also underwent chaos and death due to Hurricane Harvey. I believe natural disasters happen. But I must say that Mumbai sewage system is outdated. In my young days, heavy rains had the low-lying areas all flooded. But now even South Mumbai is not spared. The municipality is not keeping up with the rising population. A disaster such as the one that happened could strike one day, and it happened with devastating result. Yeah, TV news harped on "Maximum City", the book which profiled Mumbai. I read the book,which is tittled Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta, when it came out. The US-based Mehta painted Bombay in all its colours, having stayed in the city for sometime to do the book. Bombay Meri Hai.. whatever happens to the city, the city will live on. Eugene
