What is the issue?
- In India both drought and monsoon are prevailing at the same time.
- More rain in fewer days causes heavy floods, effective flood management is needed.
What are the recent incidence of floods in India?
- Chandigarh-It had deficient rain till August 21, and then it got 115 mm of rain in just 12 hours.
- It got roughly 15 per cent of its annual monsoon rain in just a few hours.
- Bengaluru -It got 150 mm of rain in just about a day, which is close to 30 per cent of its annual monsoon rain.
- Rajasthan-In a span of 24 hoursMount Abu recorded a whopping 324 mm of rainfall.
- It received more than half its annual monsoon rain in two days.
- Bihar - Recent flood is the result of sudden increase in water discharge through rivers Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla, Kosi and Mahananda due to heavy rain in the catchment areas.
- This year’s floods in Bihar have killed 480 people and devastated the lives of more than 10 million.
- Assam -Northeast India floods are caused by overflowing of Brahmaputra River in the state of Assam.
- Recently it affected four north eastern states, claiming the life of 100 and displaced millions.
What can be an effective way of flood management?
- Desilting of rivers alone is not just unfeasible and it’s more time consuming.
- Embankments had not worked, planning systems that can divert and channel water is required.
- Linking rivers to ponds, lakes, and ditches so that the water is free to flow, will distribute the water across the region.
- It will also ensure that there is food during floods, as wetlands are highly productive in terms of fish and plant food.
- Living water structures will capture the rain, and be a sponge for floods and storehouse for drought.
Source: Business Standard
