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When the monsoon arrived in Delhi last year, it brought welcome respite from the relentless heat. But for Rahish, this comfort was short-lived.

With just a short spell of rain, the street in front of his tailoring shop in South Delhi’s Tigri was waterlogged with about a foot of rainwater. It took around four hours for it to subside.

But Rahish was expecting it. After all, he had seen the pattern repeat year after year for the last 30 years. This year, the water even entered his shop and damaged some of his cloth material. “I am still paying for the losses,” he said, as he finished the final stitches on a pair of trousers for a customer.

“The biggest problem is that there is no exit for the water that collects,” said Rahish.

Tigri is adjacent to Sangam Vihar, one of Delhi’s largest unplanned colonies, where waterlogging occurs frequently.

Excess rainwater is meant to flow into the Barapullah stormwater drain here, but most of the smaller drains that connect to it are blocked with solid waste. As a result, water seeps through manholes and flows into the sewerage system under the roads.

“But since the pipes are small, very soon it starts giving out backflow,” Rahish said. When this happens, rainwater,...

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