Caught by deluges and droughts, India's cities look to become climate smarter

(Reuters, 26 Oct 2020) India - hit by worsening disaster-related losses - hopes to begin tackling climate risks with a project launched last month to train cities.

India's southern city of Hyderabad is known as a high-tech hub - but its infrastructure is looking increasingly dated in an era of strengthening climate change impacts.

The city - home to offices of Microsoft and Google - this month saw its heaviest rainfall in a century, which left 70 dead and 5.7 billion rupees ($77 million) in damage to roads and drains, officials said.

In many cities in India, which find themselves increasingly caught between worsening droughts and deluges, urban planners have rarely considered growing climate risks when designing projects.

That lack of preparation - a global problem - is expected to be hugely costly, with about $90 trillion likely to be spent worldwide building and updating infrastructure by 2030, according to the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.

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Reuters, 26 Oct 2020: Caught by deluges and droughts, India's cities look to become climate smarter