The Sorrow of Assam: What Lies Behind the Floods & Fury
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What once was a lifeline now claims thousands of lives each year.
The perennial river the Brahmaputra is known for changing its course very frequently which no embankment or dam could stop leading to disastrous flooding. We have been facing this reality blaming it all on the vagaries of nature for the last 70 years!
Unable to contain the recurring fury of floods, the administration has been dependant on constructing embankments, a practice that started in the 1950s. Not much has changed today even after having vast knowledge of topography & hydrology of the rivers.
This year more than 40 lakh people have been affected by the same problem of flooding & landslides across 27 districts of the state while leaving more than 100 dead.
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More animals are dying due to flooding than poaching in Assam.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kaziranga National Park is 90% flooded with water covering even the higher grounds of Karbi Angong leaving no place for animals to escape.
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76 animals including 2 One-Horned Indian Rhinoceros — the animal listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List have died in floods.
Human encroachment and urbanization has made it difficult for animals to seek refuge thus they end up entering villages and stranded on NH-37 stretch leading to human-animal conflict and mishaps. All this leads to the killing of more than 300 animals each year.
Floods along with the pandemic have created havoc in the State which already lacks basic infrastructure & healthcare systems. Still, there is no system in place to recognize it as National Calamity.
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A disaster is declared as a national calamity when it affects one-third of the state wherein the severity is adjudged on a case to case basis.
For now, relief operations are being carried by NDRF, SDRF, and civil defense in Assam while Maharashtra & Gujarat are put under the radar.
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40% of the state of Assam is prone to flooding as per National Flood Commission of India (NFCI)
It started with heavy rainfall in Meghalaya & Assam caused due to the monsoon trough built in the foothills of Himalayas. The situation exacerbated when Bhutan released 2700 cumecs of extra water from the Kurichu dam adding on to the inundation of the lower valley of Assam.
The worst-hit district over the years has been Barpeta, inundated by Beki river — an overflowing tributary of Brahmaputra. Floods are a natural occurrence in Assam as the tributaries are unable to contain the huge flow of water downstream.
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Brahmaputra valley makes 9.6% of India’s total flood-prone area.
The Brahmaputra flows downstream due to the melting of glaciers from Tibet, the place of origin of the massive river. The river flows from highlands to flat plain of Assam leading to heavy unloading of sediments which leads to filling of riverbed & spilling over of water from the river basin. This makes Brahmaputra 5th largest river in terms of sediment yield.
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Soil erosion claims 8000 hectares of land each year in Assam.
The tributaries of Brahmaputra & Barack river are unable to carry the load of sediments. Also, the Himalayan ranges running through Assam are still young with soft rocks devoid of any green cover which makes them susceptible to erosion.
The topographic structure of Guwahati is bowl-shaped which creates inundation due to running water from neighboring states. This along with an unstable geological structure created after the Earthquake of 1950 adds to the vagaries of nature causing the floods!
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Is it just nature or there is something more to it?
The recurrent loss of life and infrastructure each year hints that it has more to do with the artificial man-made floods than just fury of nature. The pattern of repetitive flooding is now being seen throughout the country and not just in Eastern India.
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India ranks 5th on the Climate Change Index.
Anthropogenic factors have added to the challenge of climate change which in turn has made monsoon more erratic with lesser frequency of rains but extreme precipitation. With inadequate means to contain such heavy flow of water, the densely populated region from UP to the Barack Valley of Assam faces excessive destruction.
As natural reservoirs like forests and wetlands have been encroached upon by excessive construction activity, silting & landslides are common phenomena. The local means to conserve the environment and contain disasters as construction based on bamboo are done away with.
While dams are protested against due to major ecological loss in the region thus the only way resorted to contain the floods is the construction of embankments, the practice still being used despite extensive research made on disaster-prone infrastructure.
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Rs 30,000 crores have been spent over the last 60 years to construct embankments along the Brahmaputra & its 103 tributaries.
There exists a political-private nexus as the construction of embankments generates employment by providing projects to contractors and also proves as a sign of development & activity.
But landslides & faulty drainage lead to a regular breach of embankments, 80% of which already lack proper maintenance adding to the severity of the disaster. Embankments are also proved to contain the flow of rivers causing them to rise higher and flow faster wherein the resultant flood is sudden and intense!
Water lodging is another problem faced due to embankments especially in times of COVID-19 when hygienic practices are a must. Stagnant water is prone to the spread of disease along with causing widespread damage to crops. Flood prone variety of paddy & jute can be provided to save the populace from poverty.
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The National Flood Control Programme & the Flood Commission are in place to contain disasters along with recent set up of NDRF & SDRF.
It’s high time that we modernize disaster preparedness and management approach throughout the country. The demand has been repeated time and again since Uttarakhand Floods of 2013, the South Indian floods of 2015, Kerala floods of 2018, recurring Mumbai rains & flooding in Gujarat, Bihar & Assam.
There has been little focus on the flood control mechanisms based on local topography. Experts suggest working on our watershed management systems to halt land degradation, wherein the rainwater can be moved down to slopes slowly based on natural reservoirs and resources.
This can be worked upon by rejuvenation of wetlands, increasing forest cover along with strengthening of selective embankments thus creating more room for the flow of the river.
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Floodplain zoning can reduce the severity where zones around rivers are devoid of any construction activity.
Following effective water harvesting techniques by creating aquifers, ponds, lakes coupled with disaster preparedness by better implementation of the disaster risk reduction framework along with educating the masses on safety & flood mitigation can go a long way in the effective management of floods in Assam.
Institutional reforms have been made by implementing the National Water Policy in 1987 and the Assam State Action Plan on Climate Change in 2015 to work on repairing and management of embankments, planning & implementing anti-erosion projects like constructing reservoirs, watersheds and channelization of rivers to contain silting.
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Diplomacy is the answer to move from flood protection to flood governance approach.
Neighboring nations like China, India, Bangladesh & Bhutan must work on an Integrated Basin Management System for better disaster preparedness. China has been constructing dams upstream in Tibet for storing water that holds the untamed flow but the country is accused of diverting the flow of the river to distribute water in its drought-prone areas.
Dams are not built in Assam to save from ecological harm and also dams get silted easily thus water has to be released increasing the intensity of flow causing floods downstream.
A pact was signed by China & India to share data on rainfall & water levels of Yarlung Tsangpo (the Brahmaputra in Tibet) twice a day from June 1 to October 15 each year. On the basis of hydrological data safe evacuation is made in low lying areas of India.
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The Call for Cooperative Federalism.
It’s time to work on structural interventions in the issues that matter to the nation. While centre can work on decentralizing weather forecasts, the interlinking of rivers between Arunachal Pradesh & Assam to reduce the load on the Brahmaputra can be a way to build towards a safer nation.
Better urban planning and disaster preparedness by shedding the lack of political will to get things going is the only way to stop the curse of recurring floods!
