Flood control in kerala
If you
check central water commission sites for flood forecast information about
kerala state for your excitement kerala state rivers were not included in their
data base .you will get flood forecast, flood map details ,hydrograph view of
country wise river basins from kashmir to karnatake except kerala . No
informations regarding kerala , which means our authorities have declared our
state as flood free .
But our
history remind us in a contradictory way we have floods in kerala from 700 AD
,1790AD, 1907,1924,1950,1970 most of our low lying areas were
prone to severe flood even 20 % more rains were sufficient to flood those
areas, we have faced their severe havocs and those datas were clearly recorded .
After 1950
we have constructed series of dams across major rivers in kerala ,and we had
received moderate rainfalls during monsoon seasons and those dams were capable
of arresting water surges during those situations as a result low lying
areas were deprived from flood fear and the generations after 1960 haven't
faced any situations related to flood as serious
as we faced currently . so the administration have allowed peoples to encroach
river basins , constructed check dams , bridges ,major flood relieving channels
were covered or their width reduced for beautification or for construction
purposes .
Paddy
fields have reduced from 14 % to 7 % those paddy fields have cushioned such
flood waters and earlier peoples constructed their houses in the
peripherals of paddy fields they have never encroached those fields .
Rivers were
dumped with plastic wastes and other hard type materials which will block its
normal flow specially under bridges where these accumulated materials can block
the flow.Take the case of venbanad lake its area has been reduced from
350 sq.km to 150 sq.km as a result the water level will
rise which results in floods.
Sand mining has caused
the river tributaries to be blocked during floods these tributaries carry
excess water to other rivers , it has turned free flowing rivers in to mud pits
,quality of flowing water is degraded , rivers basin structures is destroyed it
can change its flow direction during severe floods.
Cutting
down trees is another problem ,fully grown tree can
absorb around 6 lakh liters of water and can
give back during drought periods. So trees helps during flood and drought
periods apart it helps to prevent soil erosion.
Apart from
that we need to properly manage interstate water transfer , there should be SOPS for
operating dams and regular meetings should be required to make sure the water
management is done as per the revised SOP based on the situations.
We have to
do proper flood mapping to
understand where to rehabilitate people during floods, clean rivers
,decommission old check dams ,stop sand mining ,stop encroaching river
basins,stop filling paddy land for constructions ,proper communication and
coordination between various dept specially KSEB,SDM ,Interstate water transfer
committees,CWC and state /central governments. Apart from that there should be
proper telemetry systems to collect hydrological datas and communicate with
central control room which inturn direct these departments after analyzing
various data records.
