Recent Floods: Analysis

Relevance: mains: G.S paper I: Disaster And Disaster Management

Context

The havoc that the floods wrecked this year with the lives and property of people of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala is much larger in scale than in the previous years.

Causes

Heavy and relentless rains over a shorter window are becoming a regular phenomenon.
Dam mismanagement and land degradation are the other two factors that have aggravated flood situations repeatedly in different parts of India.

Dam mismanagement

All the rivers and their tributaries have dams built across them in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Disputes and lack of coordination between different dam authorities as well as delayed discharges have proved fatal for these regions. Later the disaster gets transferred down the rivers.
Heavy discharges from dams could cause inundation downstream. But the failure of timely release for the dams can result in submergence of the upstream areas.
Some dams in the south had failed to regulate their storage, despite it being the monsoon season and having prior predictions of heavy rainfall.
“Dam-made” floods strike in a sudden manner on the people in the downstream areas, catching them unawares, and they do not have the “rhythm” of natural floods with which people are more familiar.
There has been an increase in flood damage, even as more and more areas are brought under “flood control” infrastructure projects such as dams and embankments.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, India is a country with the highest level of disaster displacement.

Land degradation

Structural changes in land use, diversion of forestlands, razing of mountain slopes, and blocked streams have led to a loss of seepage spaces and natural channels for drainage, resulting in the landslides and flash floods in the Western Ghats and in the Himalayan states.
Human tampering with geomorphic integrity of land has led to increased instances of urban flooding, producing devastating consequences for urban dwellers.
While rivers have been curtailed from sculpting the land due to structural interventions, real estate muscles in and encroaches upon any elbow room available to the rivers.
The construction of even crucial public infrastructure such as airports (in Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai and even the upcoming one in Navi Mumbai) remains devoid of any such consideration for the rivers.
Sealed floodplains, flattened ponds, mangroves, wetlands, and riverbeds prevent the natural mechanisms of land to absorb, contain in, and thus mitigate the impacts of heavy rainfall.
It paves the way for flooding, further land degradation, and subsequent drought conditions.

Way Forward

- Basin-level plans for efficient water management,
- Eco-restoration of catchment areas
- Maintenance of the natural drainage system
These steps are acknowledged by concerned government authorities, but only to be ignored in favour of more “practical and convenient” arrangements.
Unless steps are taken for “re-naturalising” river basins, the crisis of created, man-made floods is here to stay.
There should be strong legislations and also steps taken by the government authorities. One of the best methods would be to act on Gadgil commission recommendations and also enact the River Basin Management Bill, 2018.

River Basin Management Bill, 2018

The draft River Basin Management Bill proposes optimum development of inter-State rivers.
This is done by facilitating inter-State coordination ensuring scientific planning of land and water resources taking basin/sub-basin as unit with unified perspectives of water in all its forms (including soil moisture, ground and surface water).
It will ensure comprehensive and balanced development of both catchment and command areas.
It is expected that enactment of the proposed legislation would result in optimum integrated development and management of inter-State River waters with basin approach and will result in change of environment from the one of conflicts to that of cooperation.

Gadgil Commission

An environmental research commission is named after its chairman Madhav Gadgil. The commission is formally known as Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP).
The commission submitted the report to the Government of India in August 2011.

Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) Report

Recommended that the entire stretch of the Western Ghats should be declared as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
It recommended the division of region into three zones – ESZ1, ESZ2, ESZ3 and gave a broad outline of certain restrictions for each zone.
The committee recommended the division of region into zones at the block/taluk level.
It recommended that no new polluting industries (red and orange) were to be permitted in ESZ1 and ESZ2 and gradual phasing out of such existing industries by 2016. Complete ban on mining in ESZ1 and regulation of mining in ESZ-2.
It was recommended that bottom to top approach be followed for conservation of Western Ghats.
Western Ghats Ecological Authority was proposed to be set up as a statutory body and given powers under the Environment Protection Act 1986.

Criticisms of the report

The report was not prepared keeping in mind the ground realities. If the report is implemented, the development and the energy requirements in the states coming within the boundary of Western Ghats would be adversely affected.
There is no need to set up a new body while there are many such bodies for the protection of the environment.
Following severe resistance to the implementation of the Gadgil Committee report, Kasturirangan Panel was set up in 2012 to advise the government on the Gadgil Committee Report.

Results of neglecting the report

All landslide and flood-affected areas in the state of Kerala are in Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ-1), as categorised by the Madhav Gadgil report.
Illegal mining. The Shah Commission inquiring into illegal mining in Goa observes that mining beyond permissible limits has caused serious damage to water resources, agriculture and biodiversity.
Scientific knowledge and advice has been continually disregarded. For instance, the project document of proposed Athirappilly hydroelectric project had seriously overestimated the availability of water.

Conclusion

The wrong approach towards rivers and land— where it is assumed they exist to be tamed and consumed mindlessly in the interest of “development” has been a primary cause for the floods.
The above approach also has a skewed focus on dealing with the impacts of disasters, rather than addressing the causal factors.
Even while dealing with relief activities, there remains the want of a more humane and communitarian approach, especially in view of “sticker wars” on the food packets meant for reaching the affected people and “flood tourism” by the politicians.
India’s Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change denied “climate change” as being a cause of deluge, other political leaders have resorted to making it an excuse for their business as usual approach.
The climate risks and crises are manifesting with an unsettling speed, enormity, and ferocity, even as concerned public institutions appear to be caught in a time warp.