Sustainable development key to preventing natural disasters

IN the prehistoric age, heavy rain followed by floods and flashfloods in the hills created fertile basins, which are now called the food bowl of the nation. In the hills and the plains, water percolated down naturally to keep groundwater at a level sustainable for use for drinking and irrigation through the digging of wells. Rainwater flowed along the natural course in streams and rivers, on the banks of which many towns came up. This continued till the pre-industrial period. Thereafter, the interplay of natural resources, including land and water, got disturbed due to anthropogenic interference, leading to extreme events, including catastrophic flashfloods and landslides.

Advertisement

This disastrous trend has been compounded by the human quest for a better life, even when it is detrimental to nature and environment. Habitations have come up on the natural paths of water movement and infrastructure has been raised below the flood level on the banks of streams and rivers. In the hills, fragile earth and rocks have been cut at an angle of nearly 90 degrees to construct wide roads and buildings. Infrastructure development has been taken right inside natural forests. Muck generated due to the construction is dumped on the banks of rivers below the flood level; it is carried along with the floodwaters, raising the level two-to-three-fold to cause heavy damage. Floodgates of storage as well as run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects are managed irresponsibly, allowing the sudden gushing out of water, which leads to losses in the hills and plains.

These hydro-meteorological disasters are increasing in intensity and frequency due to climate change. The impact of such irresponsible and unscientific development has been seen this year in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab. Kerala and some other states have suffered similarly in the past. Heavy rain in the catchment areas of rivers, accompanied by cloudbursts, caused landslides and flashfloods in the hills. In the plains, heavy rain, along with the release of water from the Bhakra, Pong and Thein dams, has compounded the situation in Punjab. The loss of life, property and infrastructure has been unprecedented, necessitating a review of the current strategies. The losses could have been prevented or minimised by following established scientific and technological applications and the National Policy on Disaster Management, 2009.

The policy prescribes a paradigm shift from the erstwhile response and relief-centric approach to a pre-disaster proactive prevention, early warning, mitigation, risk reduction and preparedness-driven approach. Wherever and whenever these are overtaken by events, post-disaster actions, starting with efficient and effective response, evacuating the affected and distributing relief are executed. In the worst-case scenario, people are rehabilitated and if required, the affected infrastructure is reconstructed.

Post-disaster need assessments have shown that the cost of prevention, preparation, mitigation and early warning is much less than that of the post-disaster response, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. This contention, expressed by many experts, has not been taken seriously in the case of floods and landslides.

Doppler radars maintained by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) have been installed as early warning devices to predict rain and indicate any disastrous situation that may arise, three to six hours in advance. These are being upgraded to predict heavy rainfall events two days in advance. All dams have got early warning flood forecasting systems that on hourly and day-to-day bases electronically indicate the flow of water in rivers downstream to the control rooms. There are SOPs for allowing the structural release of water from the dams to minimise the damage downstream. What preparations have to be made before the rainy season are known to all stakeholders. The response to a flood situation is well defined, with roles assigned to various organisations. But all these actions were nowhere to be observed recently. Death and destruction have been witnessed, rather than smart, anti-disaster actions to tackle floods. Even the distribution of relief has reportedly not been through the efficient electronic transfer of funds to the bank accounts of the affected people.

The requirement is to assess what went wrong. A single authority should be assigned this job to get results. Landslides that add to the destruction by floods have now received attention with the launch of the National Landslide Risk Mitigation Project worth Rs 825 crore. The National Policy on Disaster Management advocates mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and mitigation due to landslides, flash floods and floods into developmental policy, planning and practices. This is not being done in most states. The policy decisions of the Union Government and many states indicate that fast-track development and ease-of-doing business are getting precedence over the adoption and application of risk reduction and mitigation measures. Climate change-triggered death and destruction call for the initiating of an integrated management of landslides, flashfloods and floods, both in hill and riparian states. IT- and satellite-based early warning dissemination systems for flood management, integrated through rainfall data of the IMD — along with the flood-forecasting system of the Central Water Commission managed through a national portal linked with national, state and district emergency operation centres — need to be developed and made operational 24×7, conveying an early warning to all stakeholders. Mitigation measures of having well-managed catchments, allowing the flow of water through its natural course, scientific execution of projects following the best technological principles, keeping development above the level of flood plains of rivers and streams, and implementation of the safety aspects mentioned in the Dam Safety Act are required.

Sustainable development following mitigation and adaptive principles and linked to an integrated flood management system would assist in preventing the loss of human lives and cattle, houses and other infrastructure, and improve overall flood management.