Where: Mumbai, India

June 25, 2007: A kid of five would tell you that it rains in June. Especially in Mumbai, which being on the coast, takes a soak before the rains make their way to inland cities like Delhi.

Yet, year after year, with unfailing precision, Mumbai goes under water. Knee deep water, with floating trash, stinking dead rodents and million toxic bacteria.

This year, it has been no different. The Indian Express reports that five persons were killed, subways got flooded, trains were running late (or not at all), trees were uprooted and roads were under three feet of water. Wading in waist-deep water, Mumbaikars (as the residents of Mumbai are called), carried a sick person to hospital, attempted to get to work, and tried to keep the water out of their homes.

This, in a city that has hopes and dreams of becoming the next Shanghai. When will the city’s administrators learn that the time for prepare for the monsoons is before the monsoons, and not when 2300mm of rain is piling up five feet high in the subways?

182 words | 1 minutes
Readability: Grade 6 (11-12 year old children)
Based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores

Filed under: world news
Tags: #monsoons, #mumbai, #rains

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