Flood fury

Recurring floods cause a crippling effect on the agrarian economies of the region. Heavy rains also adversely affect industries.
Amar Krishna Paul

SWOLLEN rivers around North-East India rise every year, posing new threats to millions of people as well as crops and wildlife every year. This year floods in the tea and oil-rich Assam alone have marooned more than 10 million people who sought shelter in government relief camps in different districts. Many millions have been left homeless as heavy rains led to rise in level of rivers across the region.

The situation is, of course, improving now. Sad to say, many water-borne diseases have raised their ugly heads in the flood hit areas. Malaria, encephalitis and typhoid have already claimed many lives. Army teams are struggling to get food and medical supplies to the tens of thousands who are stranded. Post flood management measures are currently being initiated and implemented at the government-level in this far-flung region. The recurring floods cause a crippling effect on the agrarian economies of the region. Prolonged and heavy rains adversely affect industries by limiting the ‘physical’ construction period to only a few months during the winters. The Brahmaputra is braided and unstable in the entire Assam Valley except for a few places. The instability of the river is attributed to high sediment charge, steep slope and transverse gradient. In a sense, ravaging floods have broken the backbone of the North-East’s economy.

Both water scarcities in    summer and floods during the monsoon are seasonal phenomena. There is a need for a long-term strategy for better water management at the national level to fight the twin menaces.

In Assam, there has been a demand for many years now for an integrated scheme for controlling the river system - the Brahmaputra and the Barak - besides getting other benefits like irrigation and power generation for economic welfare. Devastating floods have become a regular feature during the monsoon months damaging the standing crops and bringing untold misery to the masses of Assam every year.

The world-renowned Kaziranga National Park in Assam, home to   the almost extinct one-horned rhinoceros, is also under threat. Incessant rains during the past    few weeks had led to a sharp rise in the level of the river Brahmaputra. Forest rangers at the Kaziranga   Park have been put on a maximum alert amid fears that flood waters might submerge the sanctuary. During the floods three years ago, more than 600 endangered animals were drowned.

The worlds largest river island of Majuli in eastern Assam, was in danger of being submerged. Water levels of the Brahmaputra around the Majuli island are above the danger mark. More than 60,000 people have been rendered homeless due to the floods in Majuli. There is already a severe shortage of essential commodities as the island has been cut off from the mainland.

In fact, the entire North-East is a seismic zone and receives earthquake shocks of moderate to severe intensity from time to time. The situation has been further aggravated due to landslides caused by high rain fall. Some    man-made avoidable actions in the form of shifting cultivation and  non-scientific commercial exploitation of forests have also accelerated the process of soil erosion in the catchment areas. The silt brought in the process gets deposited as the river descends into the plains in sudden reduction in slope, with the consequent reduction in the flow of velocity and its sediment carrying capacity.

Due to heavy deposition of silt, the river has frequently changed its course. Excessive silt deposition has also given rise to braiding and meandering pattern in the alignment of the river system. The world’s largest river island “Majuli” in upper Assam with an area of about 900 sq.km. lies in the river. The left bank tributaries of the Brahmaputra pass through stable reaches with flat slopes and carry lower sediment load of finer size. It has been confirmed that the hypsometric curve with a plateau in case of the right bank tributaries indicates relatively young stage while the basins of the left bank tributaries indicate a mature state. This has given rise to inherent tendency of the river to shift its course towards south and the river flows by the side of hills at many places along its bank.

The Barak is an important arm of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna system and is the second largest river of the North-East having eight major tributaries. The Barak is joined by a number of hill streams on both its banks. Floods occur frequently in this valley causing extensive damage to lives and properties. In order to manage the problem of flood, erosion and drainage congestion, various measures have been taken from time to time — by way of construction of embankments, bank protection and drainage improvement works. These measures have provided adequate protection to the people of the valley against low and medium floods. In the case of high floods, the embankments are not able to withstand heavy pressure. Consequently a number of breaches occur, which cause devastating floods in the valley. In order to deal with the problem of flood, bank erosion and drainage congestion, the Brahmaputra Board, a statutory body of the Union Ministry of Water Resources has prepared a master Plan for the Barak sub-basin. The torrential floods have, indeed, affected the Brahmaputra-Barak basin this year. Brahmaputra basin, a part of the composite Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin extends over an area of 5,80,000 sq. km. and lies in Tibet, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh. The basin is enclosed by the Himalayas on the north, the Patkari range of hills on the east running along the Indo-Burma border, the Assam hills on the south and the ridge separating it from the Ganga basin on the west. The upper portion of the basin in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland is mostly mountainous and the portion in Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal is covered by hills and forests. Lower part of the basin in West Bengal has fertile plains. The Barak river rises in the Manipur hills and enters the plains near Lakhimpur. Down stream of Silchar town and before entering Bangladesh the river bifurcates into two streams called Surma and Kushiara. Further lower down the river is called Meghna and receives the combined flow of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra.

The floods, as has been explained by experts, is due to many reasons — the mysterious behaviour of South-West    monsoon and most unwarranted hydro-metrological situation; heavy rainfall in the hilly catchment     areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Bhutan and Nagaland; synchronisation of flood both in the Brahmaputra and its tributaries is creating acute drainage congestion for a very   long duration; and the flashy and heavy silt-carrying river debauching from Arunachal Pradesh resulted in the country’s worst flood in the districts of Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur and Sonitpur.

The Assam Chief Minister has already urged the Centre to chalk out a three-pronged strategy to tackle the annual problem. Under this strategy, he advocated a short-term measure, medium-term measure and long-term measure. Accordingly, there was a strong plea by the MLAs in the State Assembly on July 26 for prevailing upon the Central government for treating the flood problem of the State at par with the cyclone of Orissa and Gujarat earthquake. In fact, successive governments at Dispur have tried to persuade the Centre to recognize floods in Assam as a “national problem” and also pressed for implementing the multipurpose mega projects which will substantially reduce the havoc caused by floods. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 20 announced formation of a high-powered Task Force to report to the Central Government within six months the ways to find a permanent solution to the recurring flood problem. Terming the flood situation as ‘very serious and grave’, the Prime Minister said as a immediate relief the Centre had already given Rs 46 crore from the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and Rs 55 crore from the Calamity Relief Contingency Fund (CRCF).

He said that for flood protection measures an additional amount of Rs 90 crore will be sanctioned in the next half of the Tenth Five Year  Plan. The high power task force would evolve a holistic view of the flood situation and suggest short, medium and long-term measures to solve the problem. The Prime minister said that the flood problem requires active cooperation of the State Government. It may be recalled here that former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had announced that all flood control works in the state would be on central grants and also declared a special package for the development of the North-East with Rs 500 crore for flood control sector during the Ninth Five-Year Plan.

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | From Other Publications  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |