How to save Indian from flood's furry and loss of life and property
Nature is considered deity in Indian culture but at times it can show its fierce character in the form of earthquake, tsunami, floods, etc. Floods are the most harmful among all disasters and spare no one on its way.
Floods have been occurring since time immemorial. Human had suffered huge loss due to it. Many civilizations, animals, birds, etc became extinct due to its attack. Indian have been cursed by floods since long.
Floods occur due to nature attack but human activities plays "Catalyst" in it. India is seeing floods and it's intensity increasing since independence. All North Eastern states, Bihar, West Bengal, etc faces it's problem almost every 2 year or on yearly basis. One of the main culprit in floods is faulty town planning. Low lying areas of cities should have limited construction permission and also people living near River should have proper facilities to save from fury of floods.
Urban cities are seeing frequent floods nowadays even due to small amount of rain. This is result of improper sewage can minimize the problems. City Life got halted due to it and so proper sewage facility to check it is needed.
Rivers like Kosi and Damodar are consider as Sorrow of Bihar and sorrow of Bengal respectively due to frequent floods caused by it. It changes its course very often. Thus proper channelization and through embankment over it can used to mitigate problem.
Rivers often got flooded due to over siltation. Due to over siltation water carrying capacity of River decreases and river overflows above it's Bank in the form of floods. So timely and proper distillation of River can reduce it's effect.
India has been signatory of Sendai framework. It focuses on disasters management all over the world.It helps to reduce effect of disasters. India can take lessons from Nederland who has solved its flood problem efficiently as parts of country lies below sea level. They have used underground pumps facility which constantly drains out sea water.
India can take parts in drills conducted in international platform and teach lesson from it. Our NATIONAL DISASTER RESPONSE FORCES (NDRF) has always been in dire need of technology for disaster management. NDRF can get technology access through various countries. Russia has actively and quickly offer help during recent Uttrakhand floods but our government didn't accept it due sovereignty issue. India thus lost the chance of having access to Russian cutting edge technology during disaster response.
NDRF is also in trouble due to lack of funds. Recent report by CAG told that NDRF is using old age instruments which can't work today and ask for urgent allocation of financial source. NDRF is the Savior during calamities. Who will save people when even NDRF is in trouble due to financial crunch? So increase in budget allocation gives it some breather.
Lots of life can be saved during disasters especially flood if forecast of it is announced before sometime. So proper and timely forecast by metrological department can give boost in reducing damage.
India had seen monstrous floods due to failure of dams in the past. So proper dam design is must. Also water from dam is sent to far places and make the dam at that place full but this should not be done or stopped before 1-2 months of monsoon so that dam at receiver place don’t get overflows as seen in Gujarat where water from Sardar Sarovar dam is sent to Aji dam of Saurashtra region before a week of arrival of monsoon and resulted in overflow of dam during monsoon and chaos in the region.
Lots of life can be if proper awareness is imparted to people about flood. People should be trained and do's and don't should be told by government through media and direct contact.Even people can save themselves and others if they were aware and knows how to handle it.
Floods have always affected huge amount of property loss. Roads, Railway tracks, Shops, Houses,etc got damaged due to it. This can create huge economic loss to the country.
Human loss is the worst lost among all. According to one report every year nearly 110 people faces death due to floods in India. This is ruining our human resources. Cattle is the most vulnerable during floods as they are normally tied which makes it's escape impossible and had to face wrath of floods.
Agriculture got affected due to floods. Standing crop got destroyed during floods and so it has led to decrease in our food production and also farmer's income.
According to one estimate every year flood cost India approximately 10000 crore rupees .This will hamper our GDP and growth. More decentralization is needed in finance so that municipality can channelize fund according to local needs.
"Prevention is better than cure" is rightly said. If proper strategy is applied then it can save both human and financial capital. In the present scenario of climate change rain can become more erratic so we should prepare ourselves from every possible damage.
-NEEL KAGATHARA
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