Flood Management in India
- Along with natural factors like prolonged, intense rain during the monsoon, there are man-made causes of floods in India.
- India is highly vulnerable since a large portion of its land is often flooded. The massive losses and destruction caused by the floods show how India’s disaster management and preparedness are inadequate, as well as how poorly it is able to adapt and mitigate the effects of disasters.
- Therefore, a comprehensive flood management system is necessary.
Factors contributing to an increase in floods include:
Natural Sources:
- Climate Change: According to the International Panel on Climate Change, future precipitation will be heavier, linger longer, and happen more frequently.
- In addition, climate change is increasing the frequency of cloud bursts and cyclonic circulations, which cause flash floods.
- Skewed Rainfall Pattern: During the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September, precipitation increases by 80%. During this time, rivers receive substantial loads of sediment from catchments.
- Along with the rivers’ low carrying capacity, poor drainage, and bank erosion, they contribute to floods.
- Trans-National Rivers: The fact that many of the rivers that hurt India (including the Brahmaputra and a number of the Ganga’s tributaries) have their sources in neighboring countries adds another complicated dimension to the problem.
- Another factor contributing to floods in northern India is the sudden transition from high mountains to plains.
- Earthquakes: About 56% of India is at risk of moderate to catastrophic earthquakes, according to the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) Earthquake Disaster Risk Index (EDRI).
- As a result of the river’s unsteady flow, flooding occurs in many of India’s river basins because they are situated in seismically active areas.
Human Induced Factors:
- Unplanned Development: Unplanned development, encroachments into riparian regions, malfunctioning flood control systems, unanticipated reservoir operations, insufficient drainage infrastructure, deforestation, land use change, and sedimentation in river beds are exacerbating floods.
- The river has burst embankments during heavy rainstorms, destroying residences on sandbars and along the banks.
- An increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall over brief periods of time has led to an increase in the frequency of flooding in cities and towns.
- This is brought about by the careless destruction of the drainage system, the indiscriminate invasion of wetlands and streams, and the inadequate capacity of drains.
- Inadequate waste management also makes matters worse by blocking lakes, drains, and canals, while poorly designed road structures halt flood flows.
- Pre-Disaster Planning Ignored: The history of flood management shows that post-flood recovery and relief have received the majority of the effort.
- At hydroelectric plants and reservoirs, there aren’t enough gauging stations to measure flood levels, a crucial component of flood forecasting and prediction.
How to Proceed:
Plan for Disaster Preparedness:A comprehensive flood control strategy must include a plan for disaster preparedness.
- As a result, the following might need to be strengthened:
- areas for flooding are being mapped at the local and regional levels.
- To prevent spills and erosion, riparian zones need to be maintained and regulated.
- River flood modeling is used to plan for situations like reservoir breaches and emergency dam releases.
- Modern techniques like mapping based on satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems will aid in the development of flood early warning systems.
- Integrated Approach: To manage watersheds effectively, steps must be implemented. These techniques usually mix hard engineering solutions with soft ecologically sustainable ones.
- Hard Solutions: These involve the construction of dams, culverts, and dykes as well as the widening and depth of river channels and the redirection of water through channels in order to store and redirect water and lengthen the time it takes to reach downstream.
- Ecological Soft Solutions: Methods for controlling and rehabilitating riparian regions, including decreasing river discharge and planting trees beside river channels to collect rainfall.
- An integrated strategy for flood mitigation requires a detailed understanding of the patterns that rivers like the Ganga and its tributaries display during the monsoon.
- Developing additional intermediate storage facilities, applying dynamic reservoir management, and evaluating the safety criteria for dams and canals are all necessary to prioritize buffers, flexibility, and adaptability.
- Reducing the risk of disaster: Lowering disaster vulnerability requires the successful implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
- focusing on controlling urban flooding Given that urban flooding is a growing problem and that it is becoming more expensive every year
- The 2016 NDMA guidelines on urban flooding must be fully implemented, and urban flooding demands specialized attention.
Conclusion:
- It is essential for the federal and state governments to create a long-term strategy to decrease flooding that goes beyond band-aid fixes like dredging and building embankments because floods do considerable damage to property and human lives every year. Along with the Indian states, all other countries that share a river basin must develop an integrated basin management plan.
