Flood management: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness to deal with floods that affect various parts of the country during the monsoon. The Union Home Minister also reviewed long-term measures to formulate a comprehensive and far-reaching policy to mitigate the menace of floods in the country.
During the meeting, the Home Minister also reviewed the action taken on the decisions made in the meeting held last year. Along with this, new technologies being adopted by all the agencies and the expansion of their network for flood management were also discussed during the meeting.
Shah also reviewed the preparations to deal with the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). He also emphasised on optimum use of satellite imagery provided by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) by various agencies for flood and water management.
India’s Disaster management moving forward with ‘Zero Casualty Approach’
The Home Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s Disaster management is moving forward with a ‘zero casualty approach’.
He appealed to all the states and union territories to timely implement the advisories issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for flood management and directed the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Central Water Commission (CWC) to complete the process of recalibrating all the equipment used in flood forecast, at the earliest.
Shah instructed concerned departments to conduct a detailed study of the recent floods in Sikkim and Manipur and submit a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). He also directed to ensure that floodgates of all the major dams are in good condition. Shri Shah said that the flood monitoring centres of the CWC should be in accordance with our requirements and of international standards.
The Home Minister said that the non-perennial rivers are prone to more soil erosion and siltation, resulting in floods. He directed that efforts should be made to upgrade the forecast system of the water level of rivers for better flood management.
Shah said that natural drainage system should be an integral part of the designs of road construction to deal with inundation of roads, in case of floods. "At least 50 large ponds in the Northeast should be constructed so that the water of the Brahmaputra River could be diverted and stored in those ponds. This will help in developing agriculture, irrigation and tourism in those areas at a low cost and also help in tackling the floods, and, it will eventually benefit the local economy," he added.
Shah on incidents of forest fire
Shah instructed the NDMA and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to take appropriate precautionary measures to prevent incidents of forest fire. For this, he tressed the need to regularly create fire lines, remove dry leaves and conduct mock drills from time to time with local residents and forest personnel. Along with this, he also asked to analyse the incidents of repeated forest fires at the same place. The Home Minister also asked the NDMA to prepare a detailed manual to deal with incidents of forest fires.
He directed that the IMD’s alerts regarding lightning strikes should be disseminated to the public on time through SMS, TV, FM radio and other mediums. He emphasised on the need to integrate weather, rainfall and flood warning-related apps developed by various departments so that their benefits could reach the targeted population. Shah directed that since the community is the first responder at the time of any disaster including flood, therefore, there should be coordination and integration in the community awareness programs being run by various agencies so that they can have maximum impact.
Every year, extensive regions of Bihar, Assam, and other eastern states face flooding due to rising water levels in various rivers caused by monsoon rains. Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and a few other states also experience landslides and other rain-related problems during the monsoon season. Additionally, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Jammu and Kashmir have encountered floods in recent years.
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