Srinagar, July 20 -- Srinagar flooded again on Monday morning.

A few hours of rain turned roads into streams and colonies into ponds throughout the so-called Smart City.

Boulevard Road, the city's showpiece promenade, sat underwater. SKIMS Medical College Hospital at Bemina, known locally as JVC, reported flooding inside its wards.

The meteorological department predicts heavy rainfall through July 23. But anyone who lived through 2014 knows what comes next.

Before those catastrophic floods, Srinagar needed roughly a week of continuous downpour to see serious inundation.

Now a single morning does the damage.

Low-lying areas throughout the city have lost their natural absorption capacity. Earth filling has swallowed wetlands and flood...