A recent post by business tycoon Anand Mahindra on the Dubai floods has triggered an online debate, drawing criticism from ex-CEO designate of Jet Airways Sanjeev Kapoor.
Mahindra, in a post on X, shared a video of the flash floods in the West Asian city, comparing Dubai to Mumbai. In the post, he wrote, “Nope. Not Mumbai. Dubai…”
Kapoor re-shared the post, writing, “Incorrect analogy. Dubai was not built for such heavy rains – rains that would flood most cities. A better analogy would be if it suddenly snowed heavily in Bombay, which was obviously not built to handle snow at all. Would people in snowy Oslo mock Bombay?”
But later, rectifying his stance on Mahindra’s post, Kapoor replied, “Ok, upon re-reading the post, maybe it is not mocking Dubai. However the point remains Dubai was not built for heavy rains, no matter what the source of the rain (seeding etc). It would be impractical to build cities to handle any extreme weather scenario, however unlikely.”
The reactions came after torrential rains wreaked havoc across the United Arab Emirates, prompting flight diversions, and cancellations and have even forced schools and other educational institutions to shut down.
Dubai received a year’s worth of rain in just one day on Tuesday, which triggered flash floods throughout the city. The runway of the Dubai International Airport was also submerged, and roads were converted into rivers.
As per the reports, cloud seeding contributed to the torrential rains that caused severe flooding throughout the arid nation. The UAE began cloud seeding operations in 2002 to address water security concerns despite taking into consideration the lack of proper drainage systems in several areas that might cause flooding.
