Floods in Assam

In News

• Assam is seeing the devastation of floods and landslides due to pre-monsoon rain.

About

• Assam is facing devastation because of climate change and wrongly implemented infrastructural projects.
• The devastation can further aggravate with the onset of monsoon which is due in sometime.

Causes behind unprecedented devastation

• Extraordinarily intense pre-monsoon rains: The pre-monsoon rain this year has been in excess of 65 percent compared to the average rainfall during the corresponding period in the region.
  • The suddenness of the event has given no time to the authorities to prepare for the havoc.
• Climate Change: The timing, scale and intensity of the rain have been the primary reasons for the devastation which is attributable to climate change.
  • The flooding water has been beyond the carrying capacity of the drainage potential of the terrain. 
  • Due to climate change, there are more concentrated rain and heavy rainfall episodes.
• Unbridled infrastructural development: Undesirable, unpragmatic, unplanned structural intervention on the fragile landscape of hills has not been tuned to the ecological concerns of the region.
  • Ex: Lumding-Badarpur railway line which passes through the hill district of Dima Hasao flouted various safety norms.
• Landslides/Mudslides: The landslide has been because of the loosened debris in the terrain which is due to the increased moisture content and expanding road-rail projects in the region.
  • Numerous landslides in the region have exacerbated the devastation levels and taken many lives.
• Massive deforestation: There has been hectic construction, both of public infrastructure and private property in recent times which has been at the cost of massive deforestation.
• Rampant riverbed mining: Untamed mining of the riverbed has disturbed the natural flow of the rivers in the region thus gravely affecting the drainage of the water. 

Mitigation Strategies

• Judicious balance between development and environment: The development process needs to be tuned to the ecological fragility of the region.
• Integrated holistic approach: The concerned authorities of all the states in the region should carve out sustainable policies with coherency as there are cross-boundary river flows and infrastructural projects.
• Traditional knowledge systems: It should be harnessed to drive sustainability. Local sourcing of building material and indigenous solutions like ‘living root bridges’ of Meghalaya can drive balance between infrastructural needs and ecology.
• Involving  the local community: The local populace, tribes can provide synergy to the process of building sustainable infrastructure. 
• Top-down approach in planning is often insensitive towards sustainable development at ground level. 

Way Forward

• Climate Change and beyond: The devastation in Assam is a combination of climate change and unsustainable infrastructure projects by humans.
• Blaming climate change for everything is not enough. It’s time to acknowledge the unsustainable anthropogenic practices and rectify them.
• Immediate concern: There may be little respite this year between the retreat of pre-monsoonal flood and the onset of monsoonal flood surge in the region.
  • The concerned authorities along with SDMA and NDMA should be well prepared to tackle the current and coming devastation.
• Medium to Long Run: The development process should be on the plank of sustainability and in sync with the ecology.

Source: IE