Restoring the green cover, giving rivers back their floodplains and water harvesting are the only way to protect us from devastation
In most parts of the world, the rain brings with it relief and joy. However, in India, the monsoon season brings with it a host of problems. For instance, a three-hour downpour on July 19 in the national Capital resulted in serious flooding on the city’s streets, particularly under the Minto Road bridge and caused the death of a mini-truck driver by drowning. The State administration actually had to remove a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus and the mini-truck along with other smaller vehicles submerged in the water that had collected under the bridge. In Uttar Pradesh, rain damaged the roof of a hospital in Bareilly and flooded a Coronavirus ward as patients watched in horror. Flood waters reached the COVID-19 ward of Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad, too.
Parts of Kerala and Karnataka are also witnessing floods and on the western coast, massive overflows are being reported from certain parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. However, in the entire country, the States of Bihar and Assam are the worst-hit so far. The situation is grim in Bihar as waters from overflowing rivers, mostly those originating in Nepal, inundated large parts of the State, leaving over 55 lakh residents of over 1,000 villages affected. Till date, 4.18 lakh people have been evacuated and 23 teams of the National Disaster Response Force and some of the State Disaster Response Force have been pressed into service. However, the Government of Bihar is preparing for Assembly elections while the people are suffering from heavy rains and floods.
Assam is in a similar condition and the floods have affected more than 56 lakh people in 30 of the 33 districts of the State, claiming 110 lives. More than 2.6 lakh hectares of the total crop area have been affected and the Kaziranga National Park is inundated, too, killing over 100 animals in the sanctuary. Though now the Brahmaputra and its tributaries have started receding, 7,000 people are still in relief camps and nearly four lakh people in 19 districts have been affected. Given the massive destruction, it is time to introspect why we have to go through punishing floods year after year. The answer is unthinking and unchecked development, without any environmental concerns. The fact remains that changes in land use associated with urban development affect flooding in many ways. Removing vegetation and soil, grading the land surface and constructing drainage networks increase runoff to rivers and streams after a heavy downpour. As a result, the peak discharge volume and the frequency of floods increase in nearby streams and rivers. Changes to channels of rivers and streams during urban development can limit their capacity to absorb flood waters.
Similarly, roads and buildings constructed in flood-prone areas increase the danger of floods, including inundation and erosion. Plus, deforestation in the green belt causes landslides which results in rivers changing course and flooding villages.
Floods used to happen earlier, too, but because there were miles of forests on the slopes between the hills and the plains, their effect was not as devastating as it is now and their duration used to be shorter too. Plus, as the flood waters carry nutrients and sediments, which they deposit on flood plains, enriching the soil, farmers would wait for them. Yet another advantage of floods is that they recharge the water table, ponds and other water bodies and flush out accumulated organic and chemical substances brought by untreated drainage water from farmlands and untreated effluents from factories. They restore the ecological health of stagnant rivers and streams by diluting them and providing clean water.
In 2015, well-known river expert and convenor of the Barh Mukti Abhiyan, Dr Dinesh Mishra, had suggested to the Central Government that it control unchecked urban development and remove obstacles to river and flood water flow. This would ensure that the flood waters were spread thin over a larger area and for a shorter duration. This would ensure that they could spread rich silt on the banks and the floodplains, recharge the water table and fill up and clean the water bodies in their path.
Even though the Government accepted the importance of Mishra’s recommendations, nothing has been done to implement them and year after year the nation continues to suffer from the effects of devastating floods. Restoring the green cover, giving rivers back their floodplains and water harvesting are the only effective methods to protect us. If we choose to ignore conventional wisdom, we will continue to suffer.
(The writer is a social activist and author)
