Making communities flood resilient

Damage caused to properties, infrastructure, agriculture by multiple waves of flood every year dominates the discourse of disaster management in Assam. As damage estimates mount due to the submergence of more villages during the peak flood season, the demand for declaring Assam's flood and erosion as national problems takes the centre stage. Various coping mechanisms adopted by flood-affected communities in isolated pockets are overshadowed by such dominant discourse success stories of such adaptation also often escapes the attention of the policy makers for devising the larger strategy of flood management. A permanent solution to the twin problems of flood and erosion of the state will continue to remain elusive till comprehensive management of the entire Brahmaputra basin evolves with the full cooperation of all the basin countries- India, China, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Until then, it is important to continue works of strengthening of embankments, anti-erosion measures to protect lakhs of people living on the Brahmaputra flood plains and other measures which enable flood-affected communities to cope with the disaster. Nearly 40 per cent of the state's total land area is flood-prone. Ravaging floods damage and destroy properties such as dwelling houses, furniture, granaries, and other personal belongings. The recurrence of such damage ruins flood-hit families financially and pushes them further to the brink. Years of savings of low-income households evaporate in repairing and replacing damaged properties. Experiments of application of the traditional knowledge of the Mising community of building Chang Ghar or elevated houses have helped protection of household properties including the dwelling houses from floodwaters in many areas of the state. The advantage of the traditional bamboo Chang Ghar is that floodwaters flow underneath the elevated house while people and their belongings remain protected from submergence. A practical problem in adopting the technology in RCC Assam Type House or multi-storeyed buildings is the additional cost of raising the base floor with strong pillars. Cost-benefit analysis of recurring losses due to flood damage for decades and cost of elevated houses will justify the construction of elevated dwelling houses or government offices, educational institutions in high flood-prone areas. Solution of elevated RCC structures also needs to be earthquake resilient as the state falls in a high seismic zone. Mobilizing the resources to meet the additional expenditure is not easy for low as well as middle-income groups and this is where the flood management strategy of the government is critical in decision making. The huge fund is allocated for the repair of flood damage of private and public properties. The pressure is mounting on the Central and the State exchequer for meeting such expenses of flood damage repair due to the rising cost of construction materials, population growth, rapid urbanization and development activities of building roads, bridges, educational institutions, hospitals, and government offices. Damage to crops, houses, public utilities due to floods over the past six-and-a-half decades from 1953 till 2018, was to the tune of Rs 2480 crore, according to official estimates. Cultivation of flood-resistant crops is another coping strategy adopted by farmers in some flood-hit areas of the state. While the state has traditional flood-resistant varieties like Bau paddy, Assam Agricultural University has also developed several flood-tolerant rice varieties and cultivation of these varieties have built resilience of farmers in high flood-prone areas. The export of Bau paddy grown by flood-hit farmers of Dhemaji to the United States is a success story demonstrating how flood-tolerant crop varieties can build flood resilience. Nearly 86% of the farmers in the state are marginal and small which makes it imperative for the government to formulate schemes and programmes to help them build resilience against flood and adopt the flood-resistant farming practice. Erosion of vast tracts of farm and homestead land in the state aggravates the woes of flood-affected people and displaces many of them not just from farming but also from their ancestral villages. Rehabilitation of displaced farm families is critical to rescue them from distress situations. Building elevated dwelling houses as a strategy is also not going to be sustainable if erosion continues unabated. It is a paradox that while a large number of farm families face submergence of their dwelling and farmland during annual floods, only 29% of the total cropped area in Assam is under assured irrigation while agriculture in the rest 71 per cent area is rain-dependent. Changing rainfall patterns, which climate scientists describe as a manifestation of climate change impact, pose a high risk to the sustainability of farming in the state during the flood as well as non-flood seasons. Short-term as well as long-term flood mitigation measures building resistance of affected communities is critical to the making turn around in its economy battered by recurring ravaging floods. The prevailing flood scenario in the state is a grim reminder for policymakers to place equal emphasis on non-structural and structural mitigation measures for building disaster resilience of Assam.