Floods, which were a rural phenomenon, have now become an urban phenomenon in Bihar and have also become a more prolonged incident. Earlier the floods were of maximum two-and-a-half days duration and considered good for agriculture, now stay for as long as two-and-half-months, leaving massive destruction of human lives, crops and livestock.
Barh Mukti Abhiyan convener DK Mishra said, “At least 73 per cent of the land of Bihar is flood prone.” Mishra, structural engineer, was speaking at one of the sessions of international conference organised by Asian Development Research Institute here on Monday. He said any flood-tackling scheme have to have four sets of stakeholders — politicians, engineers, contractors and the people living in the flood-prone plains — but lamented that the people have hardly a voice in the decision-making process. He added that unless the practical experiences of the so-called “laymen” and “so-called experts” are brought together on one platform, the possibility of finding a solution to the flood menace will remain elude.