Flood-control methods deployed in Assam
have actually worsened the problem
Embankments built over the last six decades have exacerbated pressures.
Image credit: Biju BORO / AFP
Aug 02, 2016 · 10:30 am Updated Aug 02, 2016 · 11:22 am
Mitul Baruah
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Once again, Assam is ravaged by floods, which seem to have become an annual
ritual for the millions living in this northeastern corner of the country.
According to government estimates, the current flood has already resulted in 27
deaths, displacement of over 37 lakh people across the state and submergence of
over 150,000 hectares of cropland.
These statistics of damages will only go up in the coming days leaving a larger
crises, including epidemics, destruction of amenities, loss of livelihoods and so on
that will inevitably follow.
Focusing particularly on Majuli river island in Assam, this article primarily
addresses two issues: (a) how the dominant flood control methods have actually
worsened the situation in the state and (b) what ought to be done.
When a solution becomes a problem
One of the key interventions by the Indian state for flood control has been the
construction of embankments, which goes back to the colonial era. These
structures have gained particular salience in Assam since the early 1950s, enabled
especially by the Assam Embankment and Drainage Act of 1953.
In the last six decades, the Assam state has built a network of about 5,000 km of
embankments along the Brahmaputra and its numerous tributaries. In Majuli alone,
which is a landmass of only about 500 square km, close to 190 km of
embankments have been constructed during this period. Despite this, 39.6% of the
total land area in Assam remains “flood prone”, which is four times its national
counterpart. Once every few years, an episodic flood devastates the entire state,
while regular floods inundate a large part of the state every year.
While biophysical factors contribute to the phenomenon of flooding, the calamity
is deeply affected by human activity, rooted mainly in the ways in which the state
has altered the river systems through massive infrastructures, including
embankments. This affects the flood situation in many ways.
First, embankments have confined the course of the river, which means that during
the monsoon, when the river swells up, it puts excessive pressure on the
riverbanks, causing breaches. While communities living in flood-prone areas are
somewhat prepared for low-intensity flooding as part of the landscape, breaching
of the embankments often wreaks havoc that they find themselves absolutely
unprepared for.
Majuli, for instance, was ravaged by a historic flood in 2012, caused mainly due to
the breaching of embankments in multiple locations. Currently, most of Majuli is
under water, and once again, it is the breaching of an embankment that has caused
this large-scale inundation of the island.
Second, the embankments have also produced a peculiar pattern of vulnerability in
the Majuli landscape (and Assam in general). They have divided the island into
two different zones – the areas inside the embankments, that is, the mainland, and a
large area that remains outsidethe embankments – with distinct catastrophes in the
two geographies.
For the inside zone, the frequency of flood events may have reduced due to the
embankments, but the phenomenon of embankment breaching now cause far more
catastrophic flooding in these areas, as mentioned above. Besides, once floodwater
comes in, it stays on for long duration since the natural outlets are now blocked by
the embankments. The result, of course, is water-logging, which leads to
contamination of drinking water sources, various diseases and crop failures.
On the other hand, for the outside zone, floods are now more permanent part of the
landscape than ever, since floodwater does not evenly distribute in the island any
longer due to the embankments. As a result, for thousands of dwellers
in chaporis – silt islets located outside of embankments – as well as those living
right along the embankments (but outside of those), there is no such thing as flood
season anymore – they practically live in flood-like condition round the year.
PTI
Wrong focus
The Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has proposed the constitution of
Embankment Protection Committees in order to ensure timely monitoring and
upkeep of the embankments in the state. While this is a positive direction, it hardly
addresses the flood crisis.
Instead, by focusing on embankments, the discourse on flood is once again
narrowed to techno-engineering approaches to processes that are indeed politicalecological in nature. Besides, it remains uncertain if such a committee will serve
much purpose other than becoming yet another layer in the bureaucratic maze of
governance of flooding and related hazards.
Furthermore, flood hazards are not simply about immediate or one-time losses.
Instead, years of flooding, combined with riverbank erosion, as is the case with
Majuli and the Brahmaputra valley as a whole, can result in irreparable damages to
the natural resources, thereby breaking down traditional livelihood practices.
In Majuli, for instance, a large population (belonging to the Kaivarta and the
Mising communities) that had traditionally lived off fishing are now increasingly
turning wage-labourers as the wetlands in the island have gradually disappeared
due to the processes of flooding and erosion.
Holistic perspective
Addressing the flood crisis in the island, then, requires stabilising the sources of
rural livelihoods as well, and not merely techno-engineering interventions to
control a flood event.
It is most urgent that the Indian state moves beyond the colonial legacy of
embankment and similar technocratic measures, and instead addresses flood from a
more holistic perspective. The National Disaster Management Guidelines, 2008
already listed a host of “non-structural” measures for flood management, including
flood plain zoning, flood proofing, flood forecasting and warning, and capacity
building of communities. Unfortunately, these measures have hardly translated
onto the ground. The government agencies vested with flood and erosion control
remain obsessed with techno-engineering approaches to these processes.
There is a need for appropriate adaptive measures to be put in place in flood prone
areas. This requires research as well as drawing on successful experiments
elsewhere. Equally essential is to involve local communities in the processes of
flood governance, who often possess rich local knowledges about adaptation to and
governance of flooding, but are currently entirely missing from the picture. Smallscale, localised measures are far more effective in environmental governance than
grand, top-down solutions.
Putting it simply, flood control is not just about techno-engineering interventions.
It is about treating the environment holistically and empowering local processes of
democratic decision-making and resource governance.