Across Bengaluru, informal settlements are typically located in low-lying areas, with low green cover, or uneven access to basic services. Credit: Swati Surampally/IIHS
The October 2024 floods in Bengaluru, India’s technology hub, laid bare a city struggling to manage escalating climate risks. While headlines focused on disrupted traffic, school closures, and debates over whether climate change or poor urban planning was to blame, the plight of the poor and marginalized — particularly migrants living in informal settlements — remained largely invisible.
As Cyclone Dana, which triggered these floods, receded, so did public attention, and life returned to business as usual. But for Bengaluru, “business as usual” is no longer an option. The city’s response to mounting challenges must go beyond short-term fixes to include long-term resilience planning, particularly for its most vulnerable residents.
The Indian Meteorological Department ranks Bengaluru Urban as South India’s most flood-prone district, with 73 flood events between 1969 and 2019. The city is not a monolith but a patchwork of contrasting realities, with built infrastructure, living conditions, and access to services varying widely. The October floods underscored this disparity: while some neighbourhoods faced temporary inconveniences, informal settlements were devastated.
For instance, a southeast Bengaluru settlement of 250 households, predominantly migrants working in construction, domestic services, and gig-based jobs. Built less than a year ago with makeshift materials like corrugated metal and tarp, the settlement was inundated with knee-deep water. Residents lost bedding, electronics, and food supplies. The flooding, attributed to a blocked natural water channel disrupted by new construction, forced residents to miss work, deepening their economic vulnerability.
Living with risk
Residents of informal settlements endure overlapping risks daily. Chronic issues like dengue fever near open drains accumulate over time, disproportionately affecting the poor. These everyday risks coexist with episodic risks like floods or heatwaves, which have immediate, large-scale impacts. Episodic risks are overlaid on vulnerability; not all those exposed to a flood event are at risk. While the floodwaters may physically affect an entire area, the degree of risk varies greatly depending on where and how people live, as well as their access to resources and adaptive measures.
Vulnerability to episodic risks is thus layered over existing inequalities, creating a situation where certain areas and communities bear the costs of these events far more heavily than others.
When episodic risks, such as Bengaluru’s floods, interact with systemic risks like climate change, the outcomes can escalate into cascading failures. Systemic risks, such as climate change, are rare and iconic, with widespread impacts that can upend entire systems. These risks, when combined with episodic events, can exacerbate existing inequalities and point to deeper infrastructural flaws. The Chennai floods of 2015 exposed similar infrastructural and planning flaws. Bengaluru might follow the same path unless it addresses its growing systemic vulnerabilities.
The inequity of urbanization
Informal settlements are emblematic of Bengaluru’s inequitable growth. According to the Karnataka Slum Development Board, the city has 435 such settlements housing 18.5% of its urban population, though independent studies suggest higher numbers. These settlements are typically located in low-lying, hazard-prone areas with limited access to basic services. Migrants, who form nearly half the population in these settlements, face compounded challenges of tenure insecurity, language barriers, and systemic neglect.
Unchecked urbanization exacerbates these risks. Disrupted water channels from rapid construction have intensified flooding. While climate change contributes to erratic rainfall, poor urban planning remains a primary driver of the city’s vulnerabilities. Migrants and low-income residents bear the brunt, constantly navigating precarious living conditions shaped by these overlapping risks. In this context, the reality for many in Bengaluru, especially migrants, is shaped by these interconnected layers of risk that overlap and reinforce one another.
A call for inclusive resilience
Bengaluru’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan reflects a critical gap in addressing these realities. Migrants are mentioned only as “co-beneficiaries” rather than a vulnerable group requiring focused support. This oversight mirrors a broader pattern in urban planning that routinely sidelines migrants, who constitute nearly 30% of the city’s population.
In the wake of disasters, there’s often a rush for quick fixes, but Bengaluru must resist this temptation. Instead, the city must prioritize detailed risk assessments and co-create evidence-based solutions with affected communities. Comprehensive strategies should address both everyday and episodic risks while accounting for systemic vulnerabilities.
As a city built by migrants, Bengaluru must now provide a secure and inclusive space for them. Only then can it truly thrive as a global technology hub while ensuring resilience for all its residents. The October 2024 floods should serve as a turning point — not just for recovery but for reimagining a city that leaves no one behind.
