New Delhi, July 21 -- Parts of Bengaluru were knee-deep in rainwater during the pre-monsoon downpour in mid-May. The rains hit Mumbai a week earlier than scheduled, and flooded its new metro station, and halted the train service. Since the season's onset, Delhi's waterlogged roads have led to perpetual traffic snarls and sewage backflows. Gurugram has lived up to the moniker #Gurujam, offering spectacles of marooned gated communities and inspiring comparisons with Venice on social media.

However shocking, these scenes now evoke a feeling of deja vu. In the last two decades since the Mumbai flood, caused by a 100-year-high rainfall and killing more than 1,000 people in 2005, there has been no respite for Indian cities from inundation, mon...