During the course of July and August this year, newspapers have regularly reported the chaotic flood situation in India due to heavy monsoon rains that have plunged vast segments of the country into the classic situation of “water, water everywhere”.

On 25 July, the Press Trust of India reported that the army and air force were pressed into relief and rescue operations in several districts of Gujarat and Rajasthan following floods caused by heavy rains that left thousands marooned while two women were killed when their jeep was washed away in normally thirsty Rajasthan.

The next day, a reputed Kolkata newspaper carried the large title: ‘Flood threat looms over south Bengal’ and proceeded to discuss how the situation has assumed grim proportions in the various districts of south Bengal as the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) had released a huge amount of water from its dams and barrages inspite of objections from the West Bengal government. On 25 July alone, state irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee declared that the DVC had released 48,000 cusecs of water and the government requested the DVC and Jharkhand state government not to release water thereby flooding West Bengal.

Floods are inundating the countryside and damaging crops in rural Bengal. And in urban Bengal, the newspaper claimed, at least three people died by drowning and 30 houses collapsed in Asansol due to continuous heavy rainfall. At 5 p.m. on 25 July, the Durgapur barrage discharged 92,734 cusecs of water while the water level in Maithon and Panchet dams nearly reached flood level. Connectivity with Birbhum district was seriously affected while houses collapsed in urban and rural Burdwan and Bankura.

According to a research study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Indian summer monsoons have strengthened during the past fifteen years, reversing a 50 year dry spell during which northern and central India received scanty rainfall. Research scholars noted a brief dry spell in 2015, which caused widespread drought throughout the subcontinent, probably due to a severe El Nino season where ocean temperatures temporarily rise, leading to a shift in atmospheric circulation, leading to decreased rain in India. However, the situation this year is quite the reverse.

The Prime Minister  Narendra Modi conducted an aerial survey of the worst-hit flooded parts of Gujarat and, on 31 July, visited Assam trying to find a permanent solution to the flood crisis. Newspaper reports indicated that over 90 animals, including rhinos in Assam’s famous Kaziranga National Park, have died in the floods while 25 lakh people were adversely affected in 29 districts of the state.

On 1 August, Prime Minister Modi announced a total package of Rs. 2350 crores for all the north-eastern states hit by floods and Rs. 2 lakhs each as compensation for victims of the tragedy.

This takes Modi’s financial aid to the region above Rs. 500 crores for immediate relief and rehabilitation. InWest Bengal, Mamata Banerjee resented the lack of interest shown by the Centre and her government has taken up a World Bank sponsored project amounting to Rs. 1800 crores to reconstruct the lower Damodar river basin, de-silt the rivers in the state and enhance their water-bearing capacity.

A comprehensive report on flood damage in West Bengal is under preparation. Meanwhile, the same newspaper produced news on 3 August that 50 people had lost their lives in the floods in the various districts of West Bengal. Hooghly District saw 16 deaths, while Bankura, West Midnapore, Burdwan East and Burdwan West witnessed five deaths each, four died in Purulia and North 24 Parganas and two each in Birbhum, South 24 Parganas, Jhargram, Murshidabad and Howrah. To quote the 3 August issue of the newspaper, “(h)undreds of people are stranded in their houses completely depending on the flood relief commodities for their survival; deadly bites from snakes and insects are on the rise, residents of the affected villages are facing (a) shortage of drinking water, food and medicines.”

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. On 6 August and flood relief and rehabilitation work were being undertaken from the Rs.300 crores allotted by the Centre to the State Disaster Relief Fund. The following day brought fresh news of more problems to come when the Met Office predicted heavy rains and floods in north Bengal: Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar.

What of the state capital, Kolkata? On 11 August, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee is said to have pulled up municipal officials who had not done anything to tackle the serious waterlogging problems of the city streets. Many of the streets of North and South Kolkata continue to be waterlogged. Downpours occurring around 3 p.m. each afternoon meant this writer had to wade through mucky water in the erstwhile posh parts of former European Calcutta: Russel Street and Park Street in order to access banks, stores and offices. On 13 August, the newspaper reported that floods were wreaking havoc in north Bengal and disrupting train services.

The Himalayan rivers were heavily inundating vast tracts of land and most municipal wards in settlements in the area were seriously flooded. On 16 August, following Independence Day, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a compensation of Rs. 2 lakhs for the families of flood victims and the government will also rebuild housing. August 2017 has at last seen the DVC agree to the West Bengal government’s request to them to conduct a survey of the existing capacity of its dams and barrages due to siltation since its inception. If the DVC had been constructed as its American technical concept, thought up by the avatars of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) so many years ago in the 1950s, conceptualised, things might have been very different.

So much for central and south Bengal: what of the northern part of the state, where heavy rains and floods are now burying people in landslides? Primary losses amount to Rs. 50 crores, National Highway 34 is inundated and the north Bengal tea plantations have incurred losses amounting to over Rs. 100 crores, according to news reports of 15 August.

What a way to ring in the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence. Rain, rain go away: come again another day but do not cause such chaos and devastation.

(The writer is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), London)