Challenges of Post- Flood Scenario in Tripura: A robust task for state government
Sanjoy Roy
September 9, 2024, 11:13:06
The impact of flood is voluminous. The worldwide loss of lives, crops, infrastructure and economic resources can all be linked with flooding events. It is fact that the risks and losses associated with floods are higher than that of any other climatic hazard. The increased instance of floods is the off-shoot of population growth and climate change. Some of the bad effects of flood are loss of human life, property and infrastructure damage, road closures, erosion and landslide risk, crop destruction and death of livestock, huge health risk due to water contamination, housing displacement, economic impacts and damage of important documents etc. Thus the importance of flood management is huge and gaining momentum. Both developing and developed countries are constantly facing flood risks warranting proper emphasis on flood management. In many developing countries including India, the impacts of flood come directly on the affected people although governments do not renounce its responsibility.
Recent Flood scenario of Tripura is still bruised in the minds of many people across the state. Everyone directly or indirectly is affected by the severity of flood occurred in 2024. The flood of 2024 is peculiar because it pervaded almost all parts of the state and low lying areas got immensely impacted by the flush of flood. Almost all important rivers ran over the danger level with flood water remained stagnated for more than 36 hours causing immense damages, troubles and inconveniences of people to doubly difficult state. The spontaneity of people to help the flood ridden people was a remarkable and noticeable feature of this flood. Although inadequate number of boats, life saving gears etc and lack of skilled/ trained volunteers were observed in some pockets to combat the crises particularly in evacuating the trapped people from flooded areas, the bravery and unflinching commitment of a section of people that have been reported as spectacular kept the sufferings of common people at low ebb. According to state government data, 32 people have lost their lives so far and more than 17 lakh people — or about 40 percent of the state’s population — have been displaced with 3.7 lakh people relocated and sheltered in 558 relief camps. About 1.25 lakh hectares of crops have also been submerged by the floods and economic loss is estimated at about Rs 15000 crores, which compared to the size of the state in terms of population, income and resources is undoubtedly hefty and alarming and thus the state government can hardly mitigate such loss without the proper help, co-operation and assistances from the centre, different states and other agencies as Tripura is not resource-rich, rather it lacks revenue generating avenues resulting in its over dependence on the central government for fund . The whole state of Tripura was notified as a natural calamity-affected area due to the recent unprecedented flood. The highest damage, amounting to Rs. 3,251.79 crore has been reported from Agriculture and Land Conservation sector. Additionally, the Department of Water Resources suffered a loss of Rs. 3,083 crore, Rural Development and Housing damage amounted to Rs. 3,009 crore, PWD (R&B) faced a loss of Rs. 1,900 crore, and the Department of Power incurred a loss of Rs. 693 crore. Thus the recent flood was a bolt from the blue to the people of this state including a headache to the state government in rehabilitating the affected people, rebuilding the infrastructure damaged and restoring the economy and wining over the confidences of people irrespective of urban and rural areas.
Now challenges are many and multidimensional. Some challenges are short term while some are long-term warranting proper strategies and future planning. Short term challenges need to be dealt with immediately and that too with proper care. Safeguarding the health of poor and common is paramount and protecting people from the threats of water borne and vector borne diseases ( like Cholera, Typhoid, Dengue and Malaria etc) should rank top among the policy makers including the supply of safe potable water to the people . The role played by Health department, Civil administration , Power, Public Works Department , Drinking water supply , Food and civil supplies department etc would determine the degree of resentment and satisfaction of the people on the government. As the water had already receded, people taken refuge or shelter in various flood camps had gone back to their residences. But the real fulmination and denunciation would start after some (fifteen) days, when the flood-affected people would start to feel the real punch of flood. Livelihood of many farmers, fishermen, goat /cattle farmers, poultry farmers, artisans etc are shattered. The ground level scenario speaks that the damage of this year flood was not only mammoth but a section of people have also squandered or lost almost all their essential day-to-day household necessities including kitchen utensils, beds, furniture, electrical apparatus, freeze, inverters etc and thus many of them are not in position to replace/ repurchase these either easily or in the near future. Houses of many villagers have become completely washed and ransacked, water tanks or its sources are either got damaged or malfunctioned. The villagers resided in mud wall rooms are said to be worst sufferers with houses totally demolished by the flood.
Priorities of the government should be the immediate rehabilitation and providing the basic relief materials/grant to the affected people based on the quantum of damages, as early as possible. Sooner the relief/ grant reaches the people, lesser would be grievances and less social cost. Besides restoring the public infrastructure like repairing the roads, drains, electric poles, transformers and providing drinking water, bringing various offices and schools functional in affected areas should be done and completed on an emergency basis. The people who lost their houses should be given minimum cash supports at the earliest so that the affected people can purchase the essential household goods, consumables etc lost during this period . Attempts should be made in repairing and rebuilding the houses and helping them develop other essential infrastructures needed for a safe and secured living. Making the village safe from the attacks of water borne and vector diseases and other threats of communicable diseases should be a priority for which all health institutions or organizations should be rendered ready with medicines and other amenities. The depleted plight of farmers, fishermen, poor artisans and those involved in agri-allied activities needs special attention. Thus every poor and middle class people need some kinds of financial support, compassion at this critical time.
It may be mentioned that many state governments, government and non-government organizations, club, different people have given financial assistances to Tripura Government and people from cross sections of Tripura have been making donations to the Tripura Chief Minister Relief Fund continuously besides an assistance of Rs 40 crore already released by central government for the relief and rehabilitation of flood affected people. Already central team has visited the state and inspected many affected areas and they would submit a fact finding report to the central government. The state government has declared a package of Rs 564 crore for mitigating the impacts of recent flood and rebuilding and restoring the damaged infrastructure. It' is learnt that all the bank's in Tripura' avowed in the state level bankers committees (SLBCs) special meeting held on 2nd September 2024 to extend all possible help to the recent flood victims in the state. The Secretary's / Special Secretary's / Director's of different line departments who were present in the meeting requested bankers to provide loan under Kisan Credit Card (KCC) by organizing special camp especially in the flood victim areas on priority basis and extend credit facility under PMAY Urban, Education, Housing etc. -Rural and PMAY and also offer credit to beneficiaries under PMEGP, SWALAMBAN, PM Vishwakarma etc.. Banks in principle have agreed to organize special Credit delivery camp in coordination with departments like Agriculture, ARDD & Fisheries for extending loans to alleviate the present crises.
In fine, it may be mentioned that flood has gone leaving many questions in quagmire, unresolved and unanswered in the minds of people particularly about the time line of distribution of cash relief and modus operandi of financial support to the affected people or the basis of allocating the money and the quantum of grant / relief likely to be received by people and whether such amount would soothe their inconveniences and difficulties to some extent or not. Thus a uniform policy should be put into practice and looked into so that the cash relief reaches the actually affected people at ease and deserving people get the appropriate amount as per rules set and the package as notified by the government is properly utilized. The paramount importance should be given about the steps for the mitigation of flood problems. Depending on locality and the nature of the flooding, a number of structural and non-structural mitigation measures may be adopted so that lessons learnt in 2024 become helpful to control any untoward situations in future; otherwise everything done now would prove vacuous. Structural flood mitigation measures may include infrastructure like dams, bridges , reservoirs, culverts, maintenance of existing infrastructure , individual flood proofing measures etc while non-structural mitigation may comprise land use planning controls, building and development controls, better early warning system, systematic plans for the catchment areas, proper training of the personnel etc. Schemes should also be taken up to relieve the drainage congestion in the cities and other important areas including removal of silts from the rivers and the review of existing smart city projects. Unabated and unplanned intrusion into the flood plains and river beds should be strictly dealt with and discouraged. There should be strict regulation of settlements and economic activity in the flood plain zones along with flood proofing, to minimize the loss of life and property on account of floods. The flood forecasting and awareness activities should be modernized, value added and extended to other uncovered areas. The use of advanced innovative technologies such as image detection and machine learning etc. can be made available to assist in the effective flood management. Adequate flood cushion should be provided in water storage projects where feasible, to facilitate better flood management. The channelization of rivers, at least in certain reaches, in the context of tackling the extensive meandering problems of the rivers, activating navigational channels and the method of improving the channel by improving the hydraulic conditions of the river channels by de-silting, dredging, lining etc., to enable the river carry its discharges at lower levels or within its banks may be advocated. Besides, identification of flood-prone areas, timely detection of the affected areas, mapping rescue routes and arranging logistics to carry out the rescue, should be agenda of government. Planning should also be made for developing most future projects outside the Agartala town and shifting some key activities outside Agartala city so that no extra-pressure of urbanization process hinders and impacts the cauldron ( Karai) shaped Agartala too much and save it from the dreary inundation . Establishment of a separate capital city for Tripura should also be contemplated. It is expected that the state government under the dynamic leadership of the Chief Minister would be able to tide over the difficult situation smoothly through good-governance, inclusive policy and with the active co-operation of all .
(Tripurainfo)