New Delhi, June 16 -- This monsoon could be different for Chennai, which has been in the news for its rapidly vanishing waterbodies and waterlogged roads. Estimates show that the capital of Tamil Nadu has lost over 60 per cent to development projects and illegal encroachments of its wetlands in the past four decades. Moreover, in a changing climate, as rainfall becomes erratic with more violent downpours and worsening dry spells, the paved-over city sees devastating flash floods, such as in 2015. But authorities appear to have found a solution to the nagging self-created water problem by converting green spaces in the city into "sponge parks".

Sponge parks, somewhat similar to rainwater harvesting structures, are essentially green spaces...