Monday’s tragedy of a mammoth hoarding falling on a fuel outlet and claiming 14 lives during a dust storm in Mumbai is scary and disturbing. The worry ahead is that the Indian Meteorological Department has warned of more such thunderstorms and dust storms across India, including in the ghats and southern peninsula, until the onset of monsoons. It is being attributed to the prolonged hot-and-dry spells with low humidity.
Civic authorities in the cities and administrations in the rural and semi-urban areas need to take this alert seriously to ensure the prevention of loss of lives and damage to properties. It is unfortunate that it cost 14 lives for the authorities in Mumbai to wake up to the potential harm that illegal hoardings can do. The fallen hoarding had no ‘pores’ to allow high-speed winds to pass through. It is a hard lesson to be learned by municipal corporations and district administrations across India.
The impact of thunderstorms and dust storms in cities and towns is partly compounded by the unrestrained human influx into urban areas. It results in a spurt in demand for housing, in turn leading to haphazard construction of structures for dwelling without science being applied for safety.
It is not uncommon to witness the deadly effects of metal sheets used in these structures flying like projectiles during such extreme weather events—made even deadlier with the proliferation of high-rise buildings with glass facades that these projectiles can crash into and rain shards on unsuspecting citizens. This, of course, is apart from the more common occurrences of flooding, tree falls and lightning strikes that heap miseries on the people.
Such weather events should not be viewed merely as isolated natural phenomenons. They need to be looked at as potential threats to existing populations. The governments and the civic authorities need to urgently conduct audits of existing structures—including hoardings, slums, power infrastructures and high-rise buildings and the health of trees.
This is imperative to ensure they withstand nature’s fury and minimise or prevent victimisation of the living or damage to their possessions. While controlling climate change to reduce such weather events is a long-term challenge, at least preparing to face them with safety in mind is of utmost urgency right now.