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Kolkata went under water on September 24, 2006. The Meteorological Office said that Kolkata received 211.6 mm of rain on 22 September. That was 168.4 mm less than what fell on 27 September, 1978, yet the water did not recede till 10 days in many areas. Salt Lake, the eastern township, was not spared. The city's drainage system is in shambles. The expanding city is overrunning the eastern wetlands, the natural draining ground for the easterly sloping city. The problem is likely to become more grave with new roadways and townships, such as the one in Rajarhat, again on the eastern fringes, getting into full gear. Drainage and sanitation is not just Kolkata's problem. Other Indian cities have similar woes


• Kolkata is 20 feet above mean sea level.Draining is difficult, even when rain is modest: the task becomes monstrously difficult whenever intense precipitation and the high tide in the Hooghly coincide, as they did during late September.

• A statement by a group of Kolkata scientists: