Monsoon & Mumbai

After scorching, sultry heat of April and May, Mumbaikars' eagerly wait for the tiny drops of first monsoon, the heavenly odour of wet mud after the first rain, the cool & pleasant breeze. But these pleasantries always come with some Monsoon Mishaps. Never has it happened in Mumbai that Monsoon season passed away without any casualties. There are hordes of problems that lifts its head up during monsoon. Train Malfunctioning & Mishaps, Flooding of Low-lying areas, Open Man-holes, Diseases, Ugly, crater holed roads, Electricity issues, Transport Delays... etc. etc. The list goes on... It's not that mumbai has not learnt from past mistakes! After the July 26, 2005 floods in mumbai, Authorities have realised that the city desperately need a effective drainage and waste-water management system. However building such infrastructure under the oldest city of India, is next to impossible task. It was then decided to clear Mithi River from all the waste scrap dumped by its river bank inhabitants! Actually speaking, Mumbai was a city of 7 isles. Much of the land you see is reclaimed land. This land was built by dumping soil and other dumpable material. This blocked the outflow of the rainwater from the city into the Arabian Sea! And in most of the reclaimed land, as it was not terra firma, has sunk down. A little rain and high tide is enough to flood these areas. The Local train of Mumbai are branded as the life-line of Mumbai. They shuttle Crores of passengers between Virar to Churchgate and Karjat-Kasara to C. Shivaji Terminus. The monsoon season have always caused some trouble for the passengers. Same is the case of road transport. I am unable to decide whether it is the contractor who uses spurious material to built roads or the road damaging rainfall that does the damage to the roads. The Moon-like craters give terrible backache to drivers! The Log-jam that comes along is inevitable. Maybe not in the main city, but in the suburbs the load shedding is now a part of life. But with monsoon in picture, turning off the electricity needs no excuse. There are also freaking accidents, ailing diseases, and other mishaps that keep on happening. My question is that ours is not the only country where it rains? Do such mishaps happen so frequently when it rains? If not stop can we reduce such freaking occurrences? As usual, I know these questions will remain the eternal ones!