A national priority

Assam grappling with recurring annual waves of floods and erosion is a seasonal discourse that takes the centre stage during the first wave and fades out from the public memory soon after the last wave. The relief and rehabilitation issues becoming the top priorities during the flood situation, dominate the discourse. Lack of preparedness of the state for flood management also figure in the discourses only during flood season and hardly before the onset of the monsoon season. These issues overshadow the discourse on the cumulative losses which the twin calamities cause and the hope for a durable solution is relegated to the indefinite future once again. State-wise damage as finalised by the Central Water Commission show that from 1953 to 2019-20, the floods and heavy rains caused damage to 26.15 million hectares of cropped area, 45,96,286 houses, claimed 3400 human lives, 6,86,028 cattle lives in the state. Floods also damaged public utilities worth Rs 5051.08 crore in Assam from 1953 to 2016. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to the woes this year. So far, the floods this year have affected over 13 lakh population in more than 2,000 villages in 24 districts. Flood waters have also destroyed standing crop on 82,546 hectares compounding problems of the farmers' already reeling under severe economic stress due to pandemic situation. The Cascading impact of such cumulative losses on the state economy and agriculture can be well imagined. The Annual Report 2018-19 of the Brahmaputra Board states that a bank line study of the Brahmaputra river carried out with satellite imagery from 1988 to 2015 reveals that there has been a total erosion of 798 sq. km against total deposition of only 208 sq. km during this period. "Even this deposited land does not have immediate value as the same can be utilized for agricultural purpose only after the formation of the topsoil, which generally takes several years," states the report.The Report also states that the flood and river management measures adopted so far in the Brahmaputra valley are "area specific and mostly of short-term structural measures such as construction of embankments, permeable and impermeable spurs, revetments etc. The poor maintenance of the flood management structures generally causes unexpected miseries to the people in case of their failure." Assam's flood prone area is about 39.58 per cent of the total area in the state. Contrasted to this total flood prone area of the country is 10.2 per cent of the total area, according to Rashtriya Barh Ayog (National Commission on Floods) which speak volume about the magnitude and scale of the disaster in the state. Assam has 423 embankments with a total length of 4474.42 km. The Assam government informed the State Assembly that of these 295 embankments with total 3998 km have outlived their lifespan. Therefore, these embankments are vulnerable to frequent breaches and spending money for their repair is pouring water in a bottomless pit. The Union Cabinet in March 2019 approved the Flood Management and Border Areas Programme with an outlay of Rs 3,342 crore for the entire country for effective flood, erosion control and for anti-sea erosion. For the North-eastern and other special category states the funding pattern for flood management programmes between the Centre and the State is 70:30 and for the non-special category states it is 50:50. Changing the funding pattern to 90:10 for Assam will lessen the burden on the state for flood management programmes under the programme. Assam received central assistance of Rs. 744.90 crore under the State Sector Scheme under central plan "Flood Management Programme" during 11th five-year plan under which 100 nos. of flood management/anti-erosion projects were approved. Funding pattern for Flood Management Programme during the XI five-year plan was 90:10 for the special category states. The state could complete 77 projects during the five-year period till March 31, 2012. During the XII five plan (2012-2017) the state submitted 133 projects for an estimated cost Rs 12,050 crore against which projects estimated Rs 1613 crore were cleared, Rs 8,567 crore were awaited, Rs 1,722 crore were under examination, projects estimated Rs 133 crore were returned till March 21, 2016. This gives an idea about flood management projects spilling over as well as getting delayed for multiple reasons, including delay in submission of reply by the State Government and the Central government keeping certain project under observation. The scale of cumulative damage caused by flood and erosion and huge fund required to prevent it from adding to this cumulative costs justifies Assam's case for declaration of the twin problem as national disasters and the Centre taking the responsibilityof providing adequate fund for the flood management projects and not passing on the burden to the resource-crunch state. The State government will have to ensure time-bound and transparent completion of the projects.