Floods and
droughts occur due to poor water management
Severe flooding
during the monsoon leads to loss of life and
property. Residents of five States in India are currently struggling to cope with
the effects of intense rainfall. Many of those lucky to have been rescued owe
it to the National Disaster Response Force.
The floods
occur owing to tardy pace of preparation for rescue and relief, poor capacity-building
to handle catastrophic weather events and lack of serious attention paid to
setting up relief camps, creating crisis-proof health infrastructure and
stockpiling dry rations and medicines. Lack of
robust regular services during emergencies is another reason. This is
particularly true of health facilities. No control over outcome of infections and the absence of care for
pregnant women are other reasons. These challenges require to be met in
emergency mode.
The widespread
of rain causing flooding is due to the lack of water management plan by which
people suffer in many parts of the country regularly. These people suffer from droughts
in the absence of rain, and floods during the rains. Rivers, streams, lakes,
ponds and many kinds of water levels were established during the reign of the
old kings and they managed those carefully to avoid floods. Why can’t we today?
Instead of few
very large dams and hydro-electric projects it is better and more economical to
build smaller dams and reservoirs to mitigate the effect of silt deposition and
submerging in a local area. There are two face aspect to the problem of floods.
First is of silt deposition in the upstream areas of big dams, erosion of delta
areas. In
India, erosion and [reservoir] sedimentation are not only severe and costly,
but accelerating. It is now obvious
that the original project estimates of expected sedimentation rates were
faulty, based on too few reliable data over too short a period. Second face is encroachment of river beds
by land mafias. Filling the river banks to get more and more filled land for
real estate projects is also responsible for flooding in urban areas.
Under the
present dispensation flood situation will be a permanent features for decades
to come. Drought or flooding of rivers are annual occurrences. Once the problem
is over they are forgotten until the occurrence of the next cycle. This is our
administrative structure with no efficient institutions to mitigate natural
calamities on permanent basis.
Hence the
common man has to pay the price for the callous attitude on the part of the concerned
authorities. This is very pathetic situation in our country where when state
like Maharashtra faces acute shortage of water, Bihar faces floods.
Water is the most
important bounty of nature, but it becomes a curse due to its mismanagement. Loss
of lives and property should be avoided by properly channelizing rivers,
linking rivers through canals, desilting river beds, taking strict action
against those encroaching in flood plains and through proper civic planning. This
way we can turn this nature's bounty into valuable gift.
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