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Real estate-driven urbanisation is deepening India’s flood and water crises, pushing the most vulnerable into harm’s way
Image Source: Getty
Real estate expansion has been a key driver of urban growth in India. However, as cities expand into floodplains and heatwaves intensify, their long-term sustainability is being questioned, with over US$ 300 million spent on mitigating floods in two years. Flooding, groundwater depletion, and unequal access to basic services are no longer isolated challenges; they are structural outcomes of how urban areas are planned, built, and governed. Addressing these risks will require aligning infrastructure, land use, and environmental regulation with the realities of terrain, climate, and vulnerability.
Urban growth has shifted from natural and infrastructural corridors to investment-led vertical high-rises, especially in high-density zones. With a growing focus on premium high-rise developments driven primarily by private capital rather than municipal planning, this vertical growth frequently takes place in areas with limited hydrological mapping, uneven terrain, or inadequate infrastructure provisioning. Projects are frequently approved on low-lying land, drained wetlands, or near water bodies, intensifying both flood risk and water scarcity.
Rapid construction along the Pallikaranai marsh and IT corridor in Chennai has compromised natural drainage paths, turning flood-prone areas into high-value real estate.
The reclamation of approximately 600 acres for developing the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai has been identified as a significant factor contributing to the Mithi River's overflow and subsequent flooding in surrounding areas. Bengaluru lost over 79 percent of its water bodies between 1973 and 2016, a shift strongly correlated with increased built-up area. Rapid construction along the Pallikaranai marsh and IT corridor in Chennai has compromised natural drainage paths, turning flood-prone areas into high-value real estate. This pattern reflects a broader trend: ecological risk is being built into the blueprint of urban expansion.
Flash floods have become an annual feature in cities like Chennai, Bengaluru, and Mumbai, not solely due to rainfall intensity, but due to changes in land use. In several cases, stormwater is channelled away from elevated, well-serviced neighbourhoods and toward informal or low-income settlements situated near nallahs, canals, or former lakebeds. In Chennai’s 2023 floods, areas like T Nagar and Sholinganallur saw severe inundation, where buried lakes resurfaced beneath commercial and residential developments. A CAG flood management audit later pointed out how planning permissions were routinely granted within 15 metres of waterways—despite existing guidelines to the contrary. Yet the impacts are uneven. While high-value homes may suffer waterlogging, low-income communities in flood basins face displacement, sewage exposure, and prolonged recovery. Many marginalised communities were evicted and resettled within wetlands themselves—effectively relocated from one risk zone to another.
Many Indian cities now operate on a dual water regime: piped supply, borewells and privately arranged tankers for the formal sector; irregular tanker deliveries and handpumps for the rest. This has produced what some call a form of urban water apartheid. High-rises and commercial enclaves rely heavily on private borewells and tankers—often drawing from aquifers far beyond city boundaries. India is the world’s largest user of groundwater, with urban centres contributing disproportionately to this trend. In contrast, informal areas often face irregular supply, contamination, and longer wait times. Chennai’s water system found that despite mandatory rainwater harvesting laws, implementation remains patchy. Affluent zones receive tanker support, while poorer areas wait for hours with no guarantee of service.
India is the world’s largest user of groundwater, with urban centres contributing disproportionately to this trend.
Between 2011 and 2021, an estimated 3.6 million people annually were displaced in India due to extreme weather events. Increasingly, these displacements are occurring not just in rural or coastal areas, but within urban zones. In 2023, high-end housing in Bengaluru’s Koramangala and Whitefield was left flooded for days. In Chennai, multiple low-income households in informal settlements were relocated, not to safer ground, but to similar-risk areas, often lacking basic amenities. Resettlement often results in decreased per capita income and asset holdings among slum populations, leaving them poorer and more vulnerable.
Urban Master Plans often function in silos with other government departments: various agencies involved in urban development—such as town planning, water supply, sewage and drainage, environment, housing, and construction—operate independently, with minimal coordination, data-sharing, or integrated decision-making. For example, in Chennai, the absence of an integrated urban water management approach leads to fragmented responsibilities across multiple agencies, resulting in inefficiencies and environmental degradation.
Drainage is often planned without topographical regard, causing pooling in low-lying informal settlements. Zoning laws, too, tend to overlook aquifer zones and floodplains. As a result, construction is permitted in flood-prone areas, and aquifer zones are built over, blocking natural recharge. In Gurugram, for instance, construction over aquifer recharge zones in the Aravallis has deepened water stress, despite heavy monsoon rainfall.
Drainage is often planned without topographical regard, causing pooling in low-lying informal settlements.
Building permissions are often granted without cumulative environmental assessments. Simultaneously, the “unmapping” of lakes and tanks from city records makes them easier to encroach upon—and harder to protect. Even where drainage systems exist, they are frequently outdated. Chennai’s water infrastructure, for example, was designed for a population one-third its current size. In Guwahati, drainage channels discharge untreated water directly into wetlands. Meanwhile, green infrastructure—such as permeable pavements, bioswales, and rain gardens—remains either absent or tokenistic in most urban plans.
To move toward a more water-sensitive model of urbanism, several structural reforms are imperative.
Building codes must mandate the inclusion of green infrastructure, such as minimum thresholds for permeable surfaces and passive cooling techniques, to reduce runoff and urban heat.
Foundational systems like real-time climate and hydrological data, which are lacking in most Indian cities, early warning mechanisms, and comprehensive disaster risk maps remain absent or underdeveloped in many urban centres, leaving administrations to respond reactively rather than proactively. Cities must also be designed not only to withstand disaster, but to recover quickly from it. This means investing in resilient infrastructure, decentralising critical systems like water and electricity to avoid total collapse, and establishing strong financial and social buffers. The financial ecosystem must also reflect environmental realities: housing loans and insurance premiums should be indexed to climate and water risk, creating economic disincentives for ecologically reckless construction.
Urban expansion often erases natural buffers like lakes and marshes, amplifying and redistributing risk—especially onto informal communities. The future of water in Indian cities will depend not just on rainfall—but on how we build, where we build, and who is protected when the waters rise.
Shashank Shekhar is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation.
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Shashank Shekhar is a Research Intern at the Observer Research Foundation. ...
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