As the news and social media were flooded with pictures of Guwahati reeling under urban flooding on 30th May and 13th June 2025, my phone was filled with texts from family and friends asking about my whereabouts and safety. My friends and colleagues also began sharing images and videos of themselves and others wading through waist-deep water with their belongings. It reminded us how floods have become a part of everyday life for communities, especially in “Smart Cities” like Guwahati, where this year’s monsoon arrived earlier than expected.
The city once again witnessed severe waterlogging in several areas (including Ahom Gaon, Bethkuchi, Dhopolia, Jyotikuchi, Rukminigaon, Hatigaon, Anil Nagar, among others). This forced residents to ask a vital question: Who should be held accountable for the predicament the city faces year after year?
This crisis is not unique to Guwahati—it echoes in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru, where even a few hours of rain bring cities to a standstill, roads turn into rivers, and vehicles break down on flyovers. These recurring disruptions reveal the fragile infrastructure of so-called smart cities—often celebrated as solutions to rapid urbanisation and population growth—yet fundamentally unable to withstand the impact of monsoons.
Disasters are no longer seen as purely “natural.” Increasingly, research links their frequency and impact to ecological imbalance, inequality, and existing power structures.
Scholars like Rob Nixon and Mitul Baruah in Slow Disasters underline how the most marginalised—those lacking resources and political power—become the primary victims of disasters. Their lives and livelihoods are “built on the institute of social inequality.”
Urban or artificial flooding has emerged as a major challenge in Indian cities like Guwahati, where rapid urbanisation has led to widespread encroachment of beel (wetlands), khal (canals), and pukhuri (ponds)—natural reservoirs that once absorbed excess rainwater. In Guwahati, wetlands like Sola Beel near Paltan Bazaar, including Borsola and Sorusola, have suffered massive encroachment and waste dumping, contributing to intensifying floods in multiple neighbourhoods.
Smart Cities Need Resilience
The uneven growth of cities like Guwahati is closely tied to rising migration and the emergence of informal settlements in vulnerable areas—hill slopes, floodplains, and wetlands—inhabited mostly by economically or climate-displaced populations.
These vulnerable locations amplify the risks faced by these communities. The monsoon exposes not just the infrastructural weaknesses of smart cities but also their inability to address recurring disasters.
As a resident from Jyotikuchi sarcastically noted, “Aami smart city nohoi flood city’s baxinda… olop borokhun dile gutei Guwahati doob khai jai” (We are residents of a flood city, not a smart city; with just a little rain, the entire Guwahati drowns).
The yearly flooding is often conveniently labelled a “natural disaster,” absolving accountability for the poor urban planning and human-made interventions responsible for such devastation.
During monsoons, smart city infrastructure teeters on collapse due to lack of proper waste management, blocked drainage systems, and absence of risk-informed urban planning. These issues are worsened by unregulated migration, mushrooming slums, and illegal construction in ecologically sensitive zones. The result is increased vulnerability and persistent flooding. Moreover, state-led development efforts often cater to the elite, with working-class neighbourhoods—mostly on the city’s margins—bearing the brunt of disasters.
Mission Flood-Free Guwahati
The state administration launched Mission Flood-Free Guwahati (MFFG) with substantial funding and stakeholder involvement to tackle urban flooding. Yet every monsoon, residents question its effectiveness.
Though initiatives like the de-siltation of the Bharalu, Bahini, and Basistha rivers were undertaken, crucial aspects such as developing a comprehensive underground sewage system were overlooked. Meanwhile, new projects—like flyover constructions—lack adequate drainage planning, causing water to overflow and collect in residential areas. Despite high expenditure under MFFG and Smart City banners, the city lacks a sustainable flood management plan.
A Hatigaon resident noted, “When Mission Flood-Free Guwahati was launched, we were promised better feeder drains and new drainage construction. Despite lakhs being spent, Guwahati residents remain bhukto-bhuggi (sufferers)—flooding and waterlogging are the new norm.” This reveals a systemic failure where smart cities are designed for the crème de la crème, prioritising their needs and political clout, while neglecting working-class zones vulnerable to disaster due to an asymmetrical approach to development.
Way Forward
India’s smart cities urgently need participatory urban governance grounded in ecological accountability, transparent planning, and inclusive development. The planning process must consider who shapes the city, who benefits, who makes the decisions—and who is left behind. This necessitates a multi-stakeholder platform where local communities actively participate in shaping development outcomes.
Solutions must go beyond top-down technocratic fixes to include community-based strategies rooted in regional resources—like preserving pukhuri, khal, and beel—as natural flood buffers.
Promises made under Smart City and MFFG initiatives must move from aspirational rhetoric to tangible improvements in urban resilience and equity. Sustainable planning must also control expansion into flood-prone areas and prioritise the needs of vulnerable communities to effectively reduce the impact of urban flooding.
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