> Development > Disaster Management
The present flood situation observed in Assam in the month of July 2019, to me, is a natural consequence of our inadequate understanding of the nature of our rivers, their catchments and geo-environmental systems that influence the river regimes as well as our collective failure in governance to address the issue with honesty and sincerity in all fronts e.g. scientific, technological, social economic and political.
Seeing the scale of inundation, damage and large population suffering and considering the fact that the two core monsoon months - August and September are still ahead of us, one cannot rule out that the situation may deteriorate further in the coming days with about two to three more flood waves waiting to sweep the state.
Photo - Arundhati Bora
At the end of the monsoon season, the intensity and impact of this year’s flood could end up being equal or more than that of some of the calamitous flood years of the past such as 1988, 1998, 2014, 2012 and 2017. The situation demands that we should seriously ponder over how we can effectively tackle this chronic problem of the state with a long-term vision, mission and action plan.
Integrated Flood Management, an internationally adopted and provenly effective approach to mitigation of flood problem, requires Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a precondition to create the basis of institutional and policy efficiency. Such an approach is entirely lacking in our country and also in our state. Both at national and state levels we do not have any specific, pragmatic and effective policy for flood and erosion management.
The first Indian policy of flood management enunciated by Government of India back in 1953 has little utility at present. The measures it prescribed for both long-term and short-term implementation such as embankments and storage projects have been found to be highly problematic both scientifically, economically and politically.
The interim guidelines and technical reports that have been produced by Government of India from time to time, do not address the complex nexus of factors (e.g. land-use change, settlement pattern, high sediment loads and climate change) that causes flood and erosion and their recently observed erratic nature in Assam. The Water Policy of Assam which was drafted back in 2007 had some useful guidelines for addressing flood and erosion mitigation. However, this policy became null and void over time because it was not adopted officially by the state Government.
Having no specific policy directive, absence of a comprehensive action plan and lack of legal instruments to prevent intuitional malpractices is the main reason why flood management (earlier referred to as flood control) is still continued with age-old, inefficient and conventional perception and practices with embankments being seen as the panacea to the flood problem which has over the years become more critical and complex in genesis and proliferation.
Therefore, it is high time we forsake the traditional, temporary and ineffective approach to flood management that depends only on structural measures like embankments.
Government of India and the State Government of Assam should immediately change the sixty-five years old flood management policy and adopt a radically different approach enriched with fresh innovation, contemporary scientific and technological progress, surety of investment of adequate fund, and the honesty and courage to rise above petty political dividends.
The main challenge is to formulate an alternative approach and develop a model tailormade for the geo-environmental and sociocultural characteristics of Assam to mitigate the twin hazards of flood and erosion with most efficiently. To proceed towards this goal, the first step will be to prepare a long-term plan of action for sustainable management of the Brahmaputra-Barak rivers and their tributaries. The purpose of this forward looking master plan of action will be to (i)manage rivers and other water bodies and develop and utilize water resources sustainably conforming to geo-physical, ecological and social conditions of the state; (ii) contain and minimize the occurrence of flooding, erosion and sedimentation as well as the adverse impact of the same on people, society and environment (iii) dovetail major development projects with river basin management, disaster mitigation, climate change adaptation, environmental protection and rural development and (iv) mainstream ‘transform risk to resilience’ approach by minimizing risk and enhancing community resilience to water induced disasters.
Such a forward-looking action plan can consider a combination of state-of-the-art structural, non-structural, socio-economic empowerment and adaptive measures. This action plan has to be developed based on rigorous scientific investigation and incorporation of the best available globally proven technology of river management which is suitable to our bio-physical context. This process may take a long time, not less than five years, to be completed. It may take at least 10 more years to implement this action plan to achieve optimum expected benefits and outcome.
River engineers, water resources specialists and environmental and social scientists having international reputation and proven credibility from both India and abroad as well as local experts have to be involved in this process. This action plan must have a vision of integrated management of flood, erosion and related hazards in organic synergy with the state’s development agenda.
To make this plan very long lasting and progressive, it has to be nurtured only in a favourable policy environment. Therefore, as the first initiative to help the action plan develop, it will be pragmatic to have an adaptive water policy that takes care of all-important aspects of water resources conservation and management including mitigation of water induced disasters taking into account the impact of climate change. This task is pending for more than one decade now after the pervious draft water policy, prepared for the state in the year 2007, became null and void.
As the second initiative, we should prepare and enforce an Integrated Flood and Erosion Management Act for the state of Assam. The main purpose of formulating this Act should be to legally ensure that (i) only the minimum required structural intervention is implemented on rivers for the purpose of reducing flood and erosion risks and that is too after careful scientific study of feasibility and impact; (ii) ecohydrological and social impact of such structures(e.g. embankment, revetment, spur, porcupine etc.) is minimized on rivers, riverine ecosystems and riparian societies; (iii) strict norms and rules are in place for maintenance of quality of construction and repairing of all such structures; (iv) those individuals and agencies that are responsible for compromising with quality and prescribed standards of construction and repairing as well as for resultant failure and malfunctioning of structures can be legally held accountable and punished; (v) the risk of flooding and erosion as well as loss and damage of in terms of private and public property, lives and livelihoods of people and socio-economic disruption and mental trauma, can be minimized.
It goes without saying that, to execute both these policy initiatives and preparation of the final action plan, the state and central governments must garner political will and ensure adequate financial support. Additionally, coordinated support and efficiency of existing institutional regime is a precondition to this gradual but radical change in strategy of twining disaster management and development.
We are already late in taking this much needed step towards an alternative, more effective, holistic and durable plan of action for managing flood and erosion. We must not lose more time. We have suffered relentlessly for more than fifty years. Let conventional approach continue with better policy and institutions for some more time and pave way slowly but surely for the transformative paradigm shift in our approach to flood and erosion mitigation in Assam. This transformation must happen without delay if we want to secure our survival, sustenance and prosperity in the state in the next few decades to come. The sooner we act, the better for our jati, maati and bheti (community, land and homestead).
The author is the Head, ‘Water, Climate and Hazard Division’, Aaranyak (A Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of India). He can be reached at [email protected], [email protected]
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