How much does the increase of buildings affect the floods in Buenos Aires?

During the last few years, and today as well, there has been an unstoppable increase in the construction of buildings around the city of Buenos Aires. For many years now, many old (yet renewable) houses have been demolished so as to become big concrete buildings. This has made many people think about a possible issue: how much can these constructions affect the floods that are already taking place in the City of Buenos Aires?

And the answer is quite simply: a lot.

The construction of many buildings reduces the useful area used to evacuate the water. Likewise, there are many new pipes installed and used, and there is no proper infrastructure to handle the great amount of water. So, if there is a big storm in the city, the water is unable to drain properly and it gets stuck; thus, generating floods.

Since there is no proper planning prior to the constructions of the buildings, and there has been a tremendous increase on the constructions of buildings around the whole city, many consequences arise from this; one of the most important is flooding. In order to avoid these issues, it is necessary that new long-term projects are done, which can organize the urban planning properly, in order this situation does not get worse.

Therefore, even though there have been many floods along the decades in many neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, due to a lack of proper maintenance or initial infrastructure, the reckless increase on construction is making the situation worse. Plus, if we have in mind that, due to global warming, we will be suffering more and more (and worse) precipitations each year, within time, the situation will become incontrollable.

All of this needs to be analyzed, both by the building constructors and the government, so the citizens of Buenos Aires do not suffer from more floods and more problems in their houses, now and in the future.