Few would dispute Chief Secretary Ravi Kota’s assertion that plastic wastes clogging drains is one of the major causes behind recurring urban floods in Guwahati. It is the combination of the regulatory failure of the city authorities to curb illegal circulation of plastic carry bags and the widespread public habit of dumping plastic water bottles and carry bags into open drains that chokes the drainage network and precipitates urban flooding. It is primarily the responsibility of the city authorities to curb the illegal sale of prohibited Single-Use Plastic (SUP) items. The illegal market of prohibited plastic carry bags will continue to thrive in the capital city until the retail consumers in the city stop asking for them for bringing home purchased groceries, vegetables, fish, meat and other food items from shops and markets. The problem persists because there has been no serious effort to undertake either the demand-side or the supply-side intervention. When supply-side intervention is strong and leads to total enforcement of the ban to stem the flow of every single SUP item, including prohibited plastic carry bags, the consumers will be forced to carry their own reusable carry bags to shops and markets, as the free plastic carry bags, in which grocers and vendors pack purchased items, will no longer be available. Until now, the efforts to strengthen demand-side intervention for curbing single plastic carry bags have been more focused around the environmental aspects of plastic pollution. An absolute supply-side intervention leads to the vanishing of such carry bags; it can create a logistical requirement for the consumers to carry their own bags. The plastic carry bags of higher and permitted thickness will come at a cost, and consumers will be required to pay an extra amount for packing each purchased item, so they will prefer to use their own bags to avoid that. For a sustainable solution, both the supply-side and demand-side interventions must take place simultaneously so that a synchronised effort can achieve an absolute ban on plastic carry bags in the city. When the flow of SUPs is effectively curbed, it will significantly reduce the dumping of plastic wastes into open drains. If the solution remains focused only on routine pre-monsoon clearing of the blockages in the choked drains, without any regulatory measures to curb the flow of prohibited plastic, then the problem is bound to recur – and the taxpayer’s money spent on the cleaning exercise will also go down the drain every year without any tangible outcome. Apart from irresponsible dumping of water bottles and plastic beverage bottles into open drains, surface water runoff during heavy rains also carries the plastic wastes dumped on the streets into open drains. When drains are covered with slabs, then irresponsible people will not be able to throw those into drains. Furthermore wind-blown market waste and litter will not fall into the covered drains. Executing the work of drainage construction and converting all open drains into covered drains at one go is critical to achieve the desired results of covering the drains. If the drains in a locality are covered but connected drains in another locality remain open, then the purpose of covering the drains in the first locality will not be achieved. Ironically, vast stretches of the city’s drainage network still consist of open drains, which explain the recurrence of plastic waste and the worsening siltation due to deposition of silt carried from the denuded hills choking the drains, reducing the discharge capacity to such an extent that they fill up in just one shower. Open drains along the streets near which fish and vegetable vendors bring their supplies in prohibited plastic carry bags have become the hotspots for the dumping of plastic wastes. This demands regular inspection of every single roadside market to strictly enforce the prohibition and prevent dumping of wastes into drains. The imposition of a heavy penalty is essential to deter and discipline habitual offenders. A strong oversight mechanism is needed to ensure that corrupt municipal employees do not undermine enforcement efforts. A permanent solution to the problem lies in expediting the creation of the designated spaces for street vendors in the city, a long-pending requirement, enabling effective enforcement of cleanliness norms and preventing rampant dumping of waste into open drains and the streets. It is baffling that the establishment of the designated markets for street vendors has been inordinately delayed when it is known to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation that shifting the street vendors to such designated space is also essential to keep the pavements barrier-free for pedestrians. The inclusion of these issues in the agenda for the review of the recurrent urban flooding in the city is crucial to finding an effective and lasting solution. As long as these interconnected issues continue to be addressed separately, Guwahati will remain vulnerable to recurring urban flooding. Better sense must prevail among all stakeholders – city authorities and residents alike.