Concerned with the rise in instances of urban flooding in the country, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ( MoHUA) is bringing guidelines on how cities should deal with such a situation. The Ministry has asked the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to prepare guidelines to prevent urban flooding.
The comprehensive assessment of losses by the Government during the period between 1953 and 2017 states that overall 256.150 million hectares of crops worth Rs 1.09 lakh crore and over 8 crore houses worth Rs 53,576 crore were damaged while over 6 crore cattle and 1 crore lives were lost during the six -and-a-half decades. In all, the floods have affected over 20 crore people so far.
According to Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, there has been an increasing trend of urban flood disasters in the country in the past few years and the ministry has asked the NIUA ( National Institute of Urban Affair ) to put together facts on the recent floods, be it in Kerala or Kashmir, and hold talks with experts to look at the causation.
“During Kerala flood, the urban flooding issues were raised again on whether we are prepared sufficiently to deal with situation,” Puri said after attending a workshop on ‘Urban Flood Resilience’ where experts suggested a number of ways to tackle the issue. The workshop was organised by the NIUA.
The minister said that there is need to devise a system to anticipate natural disaster and make preparations accordingly to deal with it. As per primary estimate, Kerala flood caused damage of assets over Rs 20, 000 crore.
According to the ministry, recommendations to be drawn up to tackle urban flooding will be based on categories such as early warning for natural disaster, preparedness for emergency and planning for disaster reduction.
An official of the NIUA said once the recommendations are drawn up, they will be sent to states. NIUA Director Jagan Shah stressed on the need for better coordination between different departments in states during natural disaster.
The government data shows that on an average, over 1,600 people die every year due to floods, affecting nearly 32 million people. More than 92,000 cattles are lost every year, seven million hectares of land is affected (16 percent of the total flood prone area), and damage is over Rs 5,600 crore. Floods resulted in loss of 0.86 percent of the total GDP in the 1970s and 1980s.
Officials of MoHUA said that the NDMA (national disaster management authority) panel, set up in the wake of the 2005 Mumbai floods, held that urban flooding is a phenomenon distinct from rural flooding. Hence, the panel said, it needs to be dealt with by the ministry in charge of urban affairs through an urban flooding unit headed by an officer at the level of joint secretary.
In July 2012, the Ministry of Home Affairs had issued orders designating the urban affairs ministry as the nodal ministry for urban flooding, but since then there has been no movement to make it operational.