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India is extremely prone to flooding. Over 40 million hectares of the entire geographical area of 329 million are flood-prone. Floods are a common occurrence that kills many people and destroys livelihood systems, property, infrastructure, and public utilities. Flood-related damage is on the rise, which is a cause for alarm. The average annual flooding damage in the span of ten years, from 1996 to 2005, was Rs. 4745 crore, compared to Rs. 1805 crore in the previous 53 years. This can be ascribed to various factors, including rapid population growth, urbanisation, increased development and commercial activity in flood plains, and global warming.
What Factors Contribute to Annual Flooding?
Several variables include large variations in rainfall across time and space and inadequate river carrying capacity.
The problems are exacerbated by silting, bank erosion, landslides, poor natural drainage, glacial lake outburst, and other factors.
Indiscriminate development and encroachment on flood plain areas, as well as poor planning and construction of roads, railway lines, and other infrastructure, have contributed to increased flood damage.
With increased deforestation, surface run-off has grown at the expense of infiltration, resulting in tonnes of silt deposited on the riverbed when it reaches the plains, further limiting its carrying capacity. Dam construction will worsen this effect.
What Exactly is a Flood?
A flood is a high stage in a watercourse, such as a river, tributary, or a water-holding body, such as a pond, lake, dam, ocean, sea, or other low-lying coastal places—the level during which a flood overflows its banks and inundates the adjacent lands.
They are one of the natural disasters India experiences virtually every year with varying severity. Annual flooding has now become a known phenomenon.
Some of the Worst Instances of Damages Caused Due to Floods in the Last Decade Include:
Patna (2019)
In 2018 and 2019, Kerala
Chennai, India (2015)
(2014) Jammu and Kashmir
Uttarakhand (2013)
Damages due to floods
Flooding can cause immediate loss of life, property and infrastructure damage, and agricultural and livestock losses. Long-term consequences include disruptions to communication networks and essential infrastructures such as power plants, roads, and hospitals.Â
In the last 66 years, floods have killed over a lakh people.
The Impact of Floods in India
Regarding flood damage in India, 7.2 million hectares of agriculture and non-agriculture land have been damaged, with crop damage totalling Rs. 1119 crores, 1653 human lives lost, and total economic losses including crop damage, housing damage, and public utilities totalling Rs. 3612 crores.
The Major Cause of Damage Due to Annual Flooding
Inadequate ability on river banks to contain excessive floods carried down from upper catchments due to significant rainfall.
Floodplain encroachment
Floods in the tributaries and main rivers are synchronised.
Cyclones occur in several sections of the country, primarily around the coasts of Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal, and are frequently accompanied by high rainfall, resulting in floods.
Unplanned urban expansion
Flooding is exacerbated by erosion and silting of river beds, which reduce the carrying capacity of river channels.
The Way Forward to Prevent Annual Flooding
The Disaster Preparedness Plan: This may necessitate the improvement of the following:
Local and regional flood hotspot mapping
Riparian zone management and regulation to prevent overflowing and erosion.
It uses river flood modelling to prepare for incidents such as reservoir breaches and emergency dam releases.
Flood early warning systems will benefit from advanced techniques such as mapping based on satellite data and Geographic Information Systems.
Integrated Approach: Watershed management must be approached in an integrated manner. These approaches frequently include both hard engineering solutions and environmentally sustainable soft solutions.
Prioritising buffers, flexibility, and adaptability: entails assessing dam and canal safety requirements, rebuilding them with greater safety factors, developing new intermediate storage, and implementing dynamic reservoir management.
Disaster Risk Reduction: Effective implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is required to lower the vulnerability of any disaster.
Focusing on Urban Flood Management: The problem of urban flooding is becoming more severe, and losses are increasing yearly.
Conclusion
As annual flooding significantly damages life and property, it is time for the federal and state governments to develop a long-term plan beyond piecemeal flood-control measures such as building embankments and dredging. There is also a need for an integrated basin management plan that includes all river-basin sharing countries and Indian states.
According to data from the Central Water Commission, annual flooding affects 7.2 million hectares of India yearly, equivalent to 72,000 square kilometres. Furthermore, damages due to floods harm around three crore people, with the majority of them being temporarily relocated.
