Flood Management measures

Flood Management measures

News: Recently, Minister of State for Jal Shakti ministry highlighted about measures taken by the government in Flood management.

What are the key measures?

Jurisdiction over Flood management
• Clear demarcation in responsibility over Flood management. For example, Flood management including erosion control falls within the purview of the States while the Central government supplements the efforts of the states by providing technical expertise and financial assistance if needed.

Structural measures of flood management
• Under the “Flood Management and Border Areas Programme”, The Jal Shakti Ministry aims to provide financial support to states for various flood management, erosion control, drainagedevelopment, and anti-sea erosion projects.

Non-Structural measures
• The Central Water Commission (CWC) is responsible for predicting and giving early warnings about floods in India. They use a system of 338 forecasting stations across 20 major river basins in 23 States and 2 Union Territories. This helps local authorities prepare for evacuations and take necessary actions.
• The CWC has created flood forecasting models for each basin. These models use rainfall and runoff data to predict floods up to 5 days in advance which helps in timely evacuation.

Committee on Flood management by Niti Aayog (Recommendations cited from a report)
• Focus on scientific research to develop models that predict flash floods earlier, reducing their impact.
• Develop and update reservoir operation rules based on changing rainfall patterns and growing population, urbanization, and industry.
• Construct large storage reservoirs to control floods by managing water release schedules.
• Prevent encroachment on natural flood areas and restore them for flood control.
• Implement river interlinking projects to divert flood waters to water-deficient regions within a set timeframe.