New Delhi: Despite numerous efforts and initiatives adopted by the central government to mitigate floods, several States including Assam and Bihar continue to face severe flooding challenges due to rampant encroachment on natural waterways along with unregulated construction activities, the Jal Shakti Ministry said.
“Several States continue to face severe flooding challenges due to a combination of various challenges, despite numerous efforts and initiatives adopted by the government to mitigate floods. These are unpredictable weather patterns, coupled with the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events with wide variations in rainfall both in time and space, landslides, snowmelt, cloudbursts, glacial lake outbursts etc,” the Jal Shakti Ministry told a Parliamentary Committee.
It said that inadequate urban drainage systems and the rampant encroachment on natural waterways exacerbate the situation, as floodplains originally designed to absorb excess water are compromised by unregulated construction activities.
“Large-scale urban development projects as well as encroachment of forestland and wetlands create flooding problems. Inadequate urban drainage systems and encroachment on natural waterways further exacerbate the situation,” said environmental expert Dr KK Pandey.
As per government statistics, Assam recorded the highest encroachment of forest land among Indian states, with over 2.13 lakh hectares occupied illegally.
“Although there is no data on the encroachment of wetlands in Assam, reports suggest that several wetlands in Assam have been lost due to encroachment as well as siltation when soil, mud, clay etc build up in water bodies,” Dr Pandey said.
Forest Land Encroached
According to data provided by the government in Parliament, Maharashtra stands at number two as far as encroachment of forest land (57,554.87) hectares is concerned. Arunachal Pradesh ranks third with 53,499.96 hectares. Other states also registered encroachment of forest land including Odisha (40,507.56 hectares), Andhra Pradesh (13,318.16 hectares), Tamil Nadu (15,768.48 hectares), Tripura (4,242.37 hectares), and Sikkim (469.16 hectares).
“The flood control measures have undoubtedly played a role in mitigating the severity of floods, the effectiveness of these measures is often undermined by the aforementioned challenges,” the Ministry told the Parliamentary Committee on Water Resources.
Lacuna In Inter-State Collaboration
The fragmented approach of project authorities in planning along with lacuna in inter-State collaboration, further impedes the effective implementation of comprehensive flood management strategies, it said.
The ministry admitted that floods are a regular annual feature in the States of Assam, Bihar and other parts of India.
Five Year Plan
“Flood management projects are planned, formulated and implemented by the State. The Union Government funds the projects of the States and UTs included for Central Funding. In February 2024, the Union Cabinet approved the continuation of the Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP) for the period FY 2021-26. One project each from Bihar and Assam has been included for funding under the FMBAP scheme. The budget has been kept to include more projects in future. Since XI plan, 142 projects of Assam have been included for funding under the FMP component of the FMBAP scheme. Out of these, 111 projects were completed, and 30 projects were foreclosed (completed with curtailed scope of work). These projects have protected 7.365 lakh ha of land and a population of 1.75 crore in Assam,” the ministry said.
Since XI five-year plan, central assistance of Rs 1557.04 crore has been released to the Government of Assam under the FMP and FMBAP Scheme.
Since XI plan, 48 projects of Bihar have been included for funding under the FMP component of the FMBAP scheme. “Out of which, 42 projects were completed. These projects have protected 28.67 lakh ha of land and a population of 2.23 crore in Bihar. Since XI Plan, Central Assistance of Rs 1624.04 crore has been released to the Government of Bihar under FMP and FMBAP scheme,” the ministry informed.
It said that major rivers which cause floods in Bihar in the Ganga Basin are transboundary. The upper catchments of these rivers lie in Nepal. “In this regard, the Government of India has established cooperative mechanisms with the neighbouring countries,” The ministry informed.
Dialogue With Nepal
The ministry informed that the Government of India is having continuous dialogue with the Government of Nepal at various levels to mitigate devastation caused by the floods from the rivers coming from Nepal.
“The related issues are discussed in the existing Indo-Nepal bilateral four-tier mechanisms comprising of Joint Ministerial Level Committee on Water Resources (JMCWR), Joint Committee on Water Resources (JCWR) and Joint Standing Technical Committee (JSTC) as well as Joint Committee on Inundation and Flood Management (JCIFM),” the ministry stated.
Major rivers in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come from Nepal which brings huge amounts of concentrated discharge and silt. “To achieve flood moderation there is a need for flood cushion arrangement in the upper catchment of rivers coming from Nepal in the form of reservoirs and dams. As far as non-structural measures are concerned, adequate arrangements are there for predicting the flood coming from the Nepal side.
Rivers Coming From Nepal Creating Havoc
The Central Water Commission (CWC) in collaboration with IMD issued the flood forecasting to the State departments. However, there is still a requirement for a seamless supply of real-time meteorological data from the upper catchment (Nepal) for improving the effectiveness of flood forecasting,” the ministry said.
Several rivers like the Sarda, Ghaghra, Rapti, Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla, Kosi, etc., originate in Nepal and flow through the hilly tracts of Nepal before entering the plains of India.
“Heavy rains in the upper reaches, not only bring floods of large magnitude but also carry huge quantities of sediment to the plain reaches of India. India has been consistently cooperating with Nepal for deriving mutual benefits like drinking water, power, irrigation and flood control from these rivers through various bilateral agreements on these transboundary rivers,” the ministry stated.
As floods in Bihar and part of Uttar Pradesh are generally caused by the rivers coming from Nepal, the long-term solution to the problem of flood lies in the construction of multi-purpose projects, with flood cushions in the upper reaches to achieve flood moderation.
“At present, flood management works are being executed in Nepal Territory by the Government of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as per the recommendation of two committees KHLC (Kosi in Bihar) and GHLSC (Gandak in Uttar Pradesh) formed following the bilateral agreement with Nepal Government. Reimbursements are made to these respective States for works executed under the River Management & Border Areas (RMBA) component of the FMBAP Scheme. Since XI Plan, reimbursements of Rs 699.63 crore and Rs 222.56 crore have been made to Bihar & Uttar Pradesh respectively in this regard,” the ministry said.
