Flood Woes For 'New India'

Heavy rains which lashed parts of India early this month crippled scores of cities and displaced millions apart from damaging crops. Many state administrations taken by surprise were at sixes and sevens at the unexpected monsoon fury. Urban Vaastu takes a look at the disaster

- Dr. Sanjukkta Bhaduri

EXPERT VOICE:

“Despite well-laid policies and directives in place both at national and state levels for flood risk mitigation, timely implementation and lack of preparedness is the bane which leads to lackadaisical pre-assessment of the forthcoming disaster, says Prof. Sanjukkta Bhaduri of the Department of Urban Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi.

In cities drainage and storm water overhaul is either attempted half-heartedly or haphazardly though the books of account show there has been sufficient funds allocated for the task. Problems do have permanent solutions for redress both in short and long terms viz., timely cleaning of drains or non-extant rivers, evacuating before the disaster strikes of people in low lying areas based on early warning weather forecasts. The long term measures include preparing vulnerability maps, expansion plans for nullahs and storm water drains and building overall capacity for tackling floods whenever the problem is expected to arise.

Many a time the city’s development works are not in tune with the Master Plan. Flood risk mitigation should be a continuous process for the local bodies which could engage communities if necessary to minimize devastation and deaths.”

“Floods in India account for one-fifth of global deaths,” says the National Remote Sensing Centre, part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

 During the southwest monsoon (from June to September) about 40 million hectares in the country prone to floods as per the National Flood Commission. “Annual average of land affected is about 18.6 million hectares and crop lost is 3.7 million hectares.”