Bhiwandi is a place devastated regularly by the scourge of rains. Bhiwandi floods with every heavy rain; its topography is in keeping with the typical flood ravaged sea hugging land. In a recent flood, million of dollars of damages were reported, thus damaging the economy of the surrounding area. With floodwaters up to nine feet, it is surprising that the place was not just flattened out. Since this is a transportation center point, with intra and interstate shipping hub, the damages were felt quite intensely. It was said that the area would take a month to recover fully from the losses.

The losses were staggering in silk and cotton and fabric industries. Other losses were reported in tools, looms and other areas of the warehousing industry. This is the reason that Bhiwandi got the nickname “The scourge of the rains.” This is no mountainous region by any stretch of imagination, this is mostly flat land and flatlands tend to flood quickly, even if barriers have been built to keep water out. So what can one do when the rains come? Pray and as a tourist you just stay away during thise months of monsoon.

This area is prime land for flooding as has been said above. Monsoon season, an enjoyable time, it is called elsewhere, here it is a dreaded period. This brings a lot of misery and loss, even of life during this time of rain, and Bhiwandi seems to get a lot of it. This is unknown as to whether it is man made or divine nature that causes these horrible floods, but flood it does and all you can do is start all over again and pray that it doesn’t happen again. Losses to homes, work places, warehouses and shipping were huge during the last bad flood, just two years ago. There honestly is no easy answer and questions are being asked about what can be done differently this next time around so as to minimize loss of work, loss of life and loss of capital. Discussions, meetings and scientific studies have been afoot and a sketchy GIS has been developed for finding ways to minimize losses and develop an effective drainage network.

Planning is the key to surviving the floods and hardships that they bring to this land. These hardships affect everyone living here. It also affects the local and national economy. So everything and everyone is linked together in a chain. If one link breaks, then the chain snaps. That isn’t good for anyone. New plans need to be made and implemented if Bhiwandi is to recover from flooding without losing much. Such plans have to be made at all levels of government and private. If everyone understands the importance of drainage, and stops occupying natural low lying areas; it will surely have cushioning effect on the sudden collection of water. Any scheme to combat this scourge will succeed with government-private partenership only. A workable plan must be in force before the next flood takes away Bhiwandi livelihood, productivity and economy. This will be for the best of all concerned.