EXPERTS ADVISORY

Heavy rain has pounded several parts of the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and has inundated most areas of its capital, Chennai. The airport is closed until Dec. 6, and the army has rescued more than 5,000 people.

The storms have knocked out electricity and cell phone coverage. Many areas lack food and drinking water. Social media is being used to organize the relief effort.

University of Michigan experts can discuss the situation:

Aswin Punathambekar, associate professor of communication studies, researches media convergence, media history and public culture with a focus on South Asia.

“With over half a million tweets in less than two days, citizens in Chennai and across the country mobilized to produce an infrastructure of care that the government simply could not,” he said. “The hashtags #chennairains and #chennairainshelp are a truly creative, citizen-driven response to a crisis and at the same time a resounding call for the government machinery in India to rethink urban planning, develop better systems to deal with natural disasters and to lead the way in tackling climate change.”

Contact: 734-615-0949, aswinp@umich.edu

Puneet Manchanda is a professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business. His areas of expertise are business in emerging markets, business in India, and strategy and marketing issues.

“The economic impact of the heavy rain in Chennai is going to be significant,” he said. “The lack of access to roads, rail and air transport has disrupted the supply chain for important industries such as automotive and light manufacturing. Human-centered industries such as software services are also going to suffer as their employees will be distracted dealing with the floods. Obviously, industries such as tourism will face adverse outcomes as Chennai is the entry point for most tourists. The local infrastructure, especially roads, has also taken a big hit and this will continue to impact the local economy much after the rain subsides.

“It is ironic that the rains are forcing people to get rid of water in a generally water starved area. Though the rains are especially heavy this time, a variant of this scenario takes place each year. Chennai needs to develop a master water management plan that works. Given the impact on the local economy, perhaps Chennai can take the lead to develop a public-private partnership to develop and implement such a plan.”

Contact: 734-936-2445, pmanchan@umich.edu

Matthew Boulton, senior associate dean for global public health, is a professor of epidemiology, preventive medicine and health management and policy. His research in India involves vaccination and other public health issues.

“The risk of drowning and electrical hazards may be two of the most immediate dangers, but flooding and standing water of this magnitude can significantly increase the risk for serious waterborne illness, like childhood diarrhea, in addition to wound infections and mosquito and other vectorborne disease,” he said.

Contact: mboulton@umich.edu

Mayank Vikas is a recipient of the Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship and graduate student in natural resources and environment. His current academic area of focus is environmental policy and planning. He has worked as a lawyer with both corporate law firms and not-for-profit organizations in India.

“Although many scientists are saying that these rains are a direct result of global warming, I think that climate change has exacerbated the intensity of such extreme weather events,” he said. “With heavy rains predicted for the next few days as well, I hope Chennai recovers from this disaster soon. The rains have killed nearly 200 people, while the economic losses will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. And to think Chennai is one of the progressive cities that is attempting to make big-sized buildings go solar.”

Contact: 202-830-8232, mayankvk@umich.edu

Arun Agrawal, professor of natural resources and environment. His expertise lies in the political economics of development, environmental governance, resource use and management, climate adaptation and institutional analysis.

“Mr. Modi has already linked the Chennai rains and floods to climate change. While we do not have enough evidence to say that for sure, if such levels of rain occur again soon, we will have a pretty good basis on which to attribute the extraordinary amount of rainfall to climate change.”

Contact: 734-647-5948, arunagra@umich.edu