In an unnerving reminder of last year’s devastating floods, Kerala’s worst in about 100 years, incessant precipitation has deluged many districts, causing havoc, snapping communication lines and claiming several lives. Rains have battered Karnataka and Maharashtra, too, leaving many dead and several missing. Meanwhile, dramatic visuals from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have revealed widespread distress. Parts of Bihar and Assam are also reeling under torrential rainfall, with a large number of people left battling grim circumstances.

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Factors causing floods:

• More than average rainfall:
  • India’s western coast has received above-average rainfall on account of sustained low-pressure conditions.
• Land use:
  • Injudicious use of land is responsible for making states more prone to floods and landslides.
  • However, other factors such as a change in land use patterns and climate change could have contributed to the situation on the ground.
• Deforestation:
  • Unfettered development activity had increased the chances of landslides, a major cause of casualties during the floods.
• Wetlands have been lost to development projects, construction of roads, and buildings at places too close to rivers.
• Other issues mentioned such as encroachment and unplanned construction are self-evident priorities when development is viewed using the lens of climate-resilient water management (CRWM).
• Mismanagement of dams:
  • For dams to truly tame floods, experts say dam reservoirs need to be relatively empty before the onset of rain. This was not the case in many states.
  • Local officials have been blamed for exacerbating the situation by failing to gradually open the dams dotting the state’s complex river network, waiting instead until they were already full before unleashing the excess water.
  • More flooding was caused by emergency releases from dams that were full. Despite forecasts of more rain, there were no controlled releases.
  • World Bank analysis while preparing the National Hydrology Project (NHP) in 2015 showed that although weather forecasts are more accurate now, dam managers (especially bureaucrats) are reluctant to authorise advance controlled releases.
• Roads, railway lines and housing colonies being laid and built without regard for natural water ways, but with formal planning permission.
• The State Department of Inland Waterways focuses on large waterways while district and local panchayats have no mandate or interest in maintaining these to reduce flood risk.
• The State Disaster Management Agency also ignores them.
• Despite India being a signatory to the UN’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, little has changed on the ground.
• Most modern cities have elaborate flood management plans .But India cannot even protect known flood-plains, tank foreshores and lakes peripheries from encroachment and illegal construction.

Current Flood management programmes in India:

• Flood Management Programme (FMP) during XII Plan for providing central assistance to States to the extent of Rs. 10,000 crore for taking up works related to river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, flood proofing works, restoration of damaged flood management works, anti-sea erosion and catchment area treatment.
• Flood forecasting has been recognized as one of the most important, reliable and cost-effective non-structural measures for flood management. Recognizing the crucial role it can play, Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water Resources has set up a network of forecasting stations covering all important flood prone interstate rivers.
• Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP): The aim of the Scheme is to assist the State Governments to provide reasonable degree of protection against floods in critical areas by adopting optimum combination of structural and non-structural measures and enhancing capabilities of State/ Central Government officials in related fields.
• Deploying relief and rescue operations like National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and Seema Sashastra Bal to mitigate the disaster caused by floods.

Measures needed:

• Jal Shakti ministry needs to boost water storage and attendant catchment area flood management works not just nationally but beyond the nation’s borders as well. Due to technological upgradation the meteorology experts have of late been predicting monsoon and other weather conditions with near perfection.
• Efforts made by the Centre and the state governments to check deforestation should be intensified. The tree plantation drives at all levels are steps in the right direction.
• Cleaning of drains and rivulets near the cities should be accorded top priority.
• Construction of embankments, flood walls, ring bunds, flood control reservoirs should be scientifically carried on.
• Improvement of river channels and surface drainage and most importantly checking erosion of land on river banks are other measures that could help checking the spread of flood.
• Advance town planning and yearly preparations should be done to mitigate the effects of urban planning.
• Flood control as a subject has no clear-cut legislative marking. As a subject it is not included in any of the legislative lists of the country that is the Union, the State or the Concurrent lists.
• River-basin specific flood inundation modelling with climate change simulations is a necessary first step to understand the full impact of potential unprecedented flooding. This includes worst-case scenarios such as twice the maximum historical rainfall, as was recently done by a Department for International Development, U.K.-supported project for the Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh.
• The local community to co-manage water resources with the government (by planning intermediate storage, drainage and emergency responses).
• There must be massive awareness generation, to ensure that buildings are not extended into river floodplains ,that road culverts let storm water through without hindrance, and that excess water is not blocked but allowed to saturate the soil strata so that it does not cause mudslides
• Need to use the best-available information for decision-making. This means improved hydromet systems and weather forecasts, robust modelling of catchment water flows with simulations of different climate-related scenarios, international norms for safety factors and building codes.
• Flood control can be made effective through an Integrated Dam Management System, which is totally computerised and automated, the only exception being lifting and lowering of shutters which has to be done manually.

Conclusion:

Given the perils upon us, India has little option but to pay special attention to its institutional capacity for disaster mitigation and relief, the nodal agencies for which need to be kept well-funded. How well a country mobilizes resources to tackle disasters, natural or otherwise, is a sign of how advanced it really is. India has made progress, but our efforts need to be stepped up.