Flood threat worries people as rains arrive

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, June 28

Residents of Banbasa and Tanakpur plains in Champawat district are concerned over the inadequate preparations to control floods during monsoon.

They say rains have caused landslides, waterlogging and damage to drains in the rural areas of the subdivision for the past many years.

“The administration is not prepared to face a disaster-like situation. It neither has a boat nor equipment like JCB and earth-moving land machines to tackle disasters. It is totally dependent on the NHPC or the Udham Singh Nagar administration,” said Vinod Kala, a resident of Banbasa.

Residents of Banbasa town say nullahs coming from Tanakpur town are filled with polythene bags and solid waste which blocks the flow of water, but the administration has failed to take any effective steps.

“The blocking of nullahs results in loss of fertile land in Chandani and Bamanpuri villages while a little rain submerges roads in Bhajanpur, Pachpakaria, Phagpur and Desi farm villages of the sub-division,” said Vinod Kala, a local resident.

“The region has experienced devastating floods in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2011 but due to the lackadaisical approach of the administration, no steps have been taken to tackle such situations,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Champawat district administration on Tuesday introduced a new system to mitigate losses in big natural disasters. “The new system named, ‘Incident response system’ (IRS) introduced in the state to tackle high density natural disasters from February this year, has also been introduced in the district along with the seven desk system, for which responsibilities have been given to officers,” said JS Rathod, SDM, Champawat and officer in charge of the system.

According to the officer, the District Magistrate has been made the responsible officer in the system while SP has been given post of deputy responsible officer. Other officers in the district have been given posts of operation section chief, staging area manager and responsible branch director according to their status in the district hierarchy, under the new system. “The IRS system requires action at the time of disaster and responsible officers are supposed to act only to mitigate the disaster losses by abandoning the normal departmental works,” said the SDM.

Rathore said the system had been taken from Army and works on war footing when high density natural disaster occurs in any district. “Whenever such natural disasters occur in the district, the system will automatically be in effect. All responsible officers will have to abandon their routine work and reach the spot immediately. The officers will also have to interact with each other through factual information on the disaster effects,”he added.

According to District Disaster Management Department sources in Champawat district, the old seven desk system will also remain as part of the disaster management tool for minor natural disasters.