India: Floods and Landslides

How Floods Develop?

A flood occurs when water overflows or inundates land that's normally dry. This can happen in a multitude of ways. Most common is when rivers or streams overflow their banks. Excessive rain, a ruptured dam or levee, rapid ice melting in the mountains, or even an unfortunately placed beaver dam can overwhelm a river and send it spreading over the adjacent land, called a floodplain. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland.Most floods take hours or even days to develop, giving residents ample time to prepare or evacuate. Others generate quickly and with little warning. These flash floods can be extremely dangerous, instantly turning a babbling brook into a thundering wall of water and sweeping everything in its path downstream.

Impact of Flooding

Moving water has awesome destructive power. When a river overflows its banks or the sea drives inland, structures poorly equipped to withstand the water's strength are no match. Bridges, houses, trees, and cars can be picked up and carried off. The erosive force of moving water can drag dirt from under a building's foundation, causing it to crack and tumble.When floodwaters recede, affected areas are often blanketed in silt and mud. The water and landscape can be contaminated with hazardous materials, such as sharp debris, pesticides, fuel, and untreated sewage. Potentially dangerous mold blooms can quickly overwhelm water-soaked structures. Residents of flooded areas can be left without power and clean drinking water, leading to outbreaks of deadly waterborne diseases like typhoid, hepatitis A, and cholera. The once-in-a-century floods that hit the southern Indian state of Kerala beginning July this year left nearly 500 dead and around 1.5 million displaced. Kerala state has 44 rivers. All 80 dams across the state had released excess flood waters (with Idukki arc dam, one of the biggest in Asia opening its gates after 26 years) due to heavy rainfall over the past 10 days. The resulting floods have affected 13 out of the total 14 districts of Kerala. This year’s floods have been described as once in a 100-year event by media. Since the start of the monsoon, in Kerala alone, 324 lives were lost, 220,000 people were left homeless, 2.8 billion US dollars in economic losses with more than 10,000 kilometres of roads damaged, 223,139 people sheltered in 1,500 relief camps Yet, even before this inundation occurred, India’s monsoon floods had caused more internal displacement than any other disaster around the world in 2018, according to Geneva-based non-profit Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (IDMC) half-yearly report, released on Sept. 12.

In 2017, India had recorded the seventh-highest levels of internal displacement associated with both conflict and disasters. By June this year, the country was already at the sixth spot, with 539,000 displacements—a number that has more than doubled since then.

Since the report covers only the first six months of 2018, it does not account for the major flood damage in Kerala, Karnataka, and Nagaland since July.

“It’s clear that the figures for India’s monsoon season as a whole will be significantly higher than what IDMC has reported so far from January to June 2018,” Alexandra Bilak, director of IDMC, told Quartz. “India is highly exposed to a range of natural hazards…These physical factors, combined with the country’s high population density, poverty, rapid urbanisation, and environmental degradation, make India most at risk of disaster-related displacement in all of south Asia.”

On 5 June 2018, heavy rain affected Mizoram State, causing landslides and casualties. It was reported that around ten people died, one was injured and a building was damaged in Lunglei due to a landslide triggered by heavy rains.

Following the onset of the monsoon, heavy rains have resulted in floods in the north-eastern State of Assam. According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), as of 17 June at 10.30 UTC, five people were reported dead

According to the National Emergency Response Centre (NERC), as of 24 June, the death toll reached 229 (24 in Assam, nine in Manipur, 21 in Tripura, 42 in West Bengal, 67 in Maharashtra and 66 in Kerala) since the beginning of the current monsoon season. In addition, NERC reported at least one million people affected across the six States.

On the 14 July 2018, the state of Kerala was affected by heavy downpours. The second spell of monsoons has greatly affected the central and southern part of Kerala; consequently, the authorities declared disaster alert in eight districts. According to the government, 14 people have been killed since 9 July 2018, more than 6,065 families have been evacuated, 36 houses were destroyed and 1,214 houses were partially damaged.

More than 1,500 people have died so far this year across the country due to storms, floods and landslides ... More rain is forecast for Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where 80 people have died over the last four days, either drowning or being hit by collapsing walls ... More than 10,000 people who lived near the banks of the Yamuna river in and around Delhi have been shifted to tents on higher ground as the water level crossed the danger mark.

Heavy rains and flood-like situation continued wreaking havoc in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during the first week of September. As dams and reservoirs overflow with water, an alert has been issued in the lower region of the Lhasa dam three of whose gates have been opened. The meteorological department said rain or thundershower is likely at many places over eastern Uttar Pradesh on September 11 and September 12.

Kerala may have hogged the country's attention with close to 400 deaths+ and widespread destruction in one of the worst floods in the state's history but nearly 600 lives were lost in four other states due to overflowing rivers, with the home ministry putting the total figure at 993.

More than 70 lakh people were affected and 17 lakhs were living in relief camps, the disaster management division of the home ministry said. Apart from Kerala, the other flood-hit states are UP, West Bengal, Karnataka and Assam.

While Kerala reported the highest loss of lives due to floods, UP saw 204 deaths, West Bengal 195, Karnataka 161 and Assam 46. In Kerala, 54 lakh people were affected and 14.52 lakh people were living in relief camps. In Assam, 11.46 lakh people were affected and 2.45 lakh were in relief camps.

An estimate by the National Disaster Management Authority (till 2005) put the loss of lives at an average 1,600 every year due to floods. The damage caused to crops, houses and public utilities was in excess of Rs 4,745 crore annually with 12% of the country's geographical area being flood-prone.

In 2017, more than 1,200 people died in flood-related incidents, as per the official estimates reported by state governments. Bihar accounted for the highest number at 514, followed by West Bengal with 261, Assam 160, Maharashtra 124 and UP 121. Four of these states had 34 million affected and 22.81 lakh living in relief camps. The situation was no different in 2016. Home ministry data on the flood situation showed 936 deaths — Bihar reporting 254 followed by Madhya Pradesh 184, Maharashtra 145 and Uttarakhand 102, among others.

Though we cannot do much about the rain or the melting of the glaciers however we can certainly build good drainage systems to deal with the water they bring along. Many countries, such as Singapore that receive heavy rainfall for most part of the year, have really good drainage system. They come out clean even after days of heavy downpour. The government of India must also build good drainage system in order to avoid the problem of flood and the damage it does to the affected regions.