Brahmaputra is one of the largest river of the world. it flows through china, India and Bangladesh and then merges with the Ganges, and then flows into the Bay of Bengal. The Brahmaputra is among the world’s top five rivers in terms of discharge as well as the sediment it brings. The river is known to cause havoc in the state of Assam during the monsoon season. The destruction caused by the flood is humongous as it affects the lifestyle of the people in a large way. The government has made some efforts but those efforts have not been successful in finding the solutions to the floods.
Almost every year the river causes flood in the state, making many people homeless and taking lives of many. This year almost 75 people have died due to the flood and a staggering 3 million people have been affected due to it till now. The flood also causes a lot of damage to the flora and fauna of the state. Nearly 95% of the area of Kaziranga National park is under water during these floods which causes the death of many animals in the National Park. It has been found that more rhinoceros have lost their lives due to the floods than poaching. The one horned Rhinoceros have been listed as vulnerable species in the IUCN red list , found only in Assam now. Also, many other animals like Elephant, Hog Deer and wild bear also die every year due to this flood.
There are both man-made and natural reasons behind these floods. The earthquake which cause the landslides are one of the many reason behind these floods as they send in a lot of waste and debris in the river which causes the riverbed to rise above the normal point. The soil erosion and the bank erosion are also an important reason in causing this flood as it has been estimated that nearly 10000 hectares of land is lost to bank erosion every year. The width of Brahmaputra is also increasing every year by substantial figure and has nearly doubled in the past century. Building of dams and encroachment of forest land has also caused the increase in the chances of flood every year.
The government has made embankments to control the floods, but many argue that making embankment causes more problems than solving them. the embankments cause water logging and more floods in the areas where the embankments have not been made because it makes the level of the river to rise. This can be seen from that no. of deaths and damage has not changed despite extensive embankments. Building embankments is only a temporary solution to the problem.
Some solutions have been suggested by the experts to deal with this situation of flood in the Assam. firstly, the government needs to improve the drainage system in the state, so that the problem of water logging can be solved. The government needs to make better safety alarm system which can alarm the people regarding the floods before hand. Also, the infrastructure which can withstand flood needs to built. Houses need to built above the flood level in the state. China which also suffers from lot of floods can also be looked upto as an example as it has been building “sponge cities”, in which instead of hard concrete, more permeable and green spaces are being used to soak up the rainfall. The same solution can be reached out in assam.
The Government need to find some innovative solutions to these floods because it is very disappointing that people are still dying from floods and the state has to deal with so much damage every year due to these floods, when we are living in 21st century. With the help of proper technology, we can create cities which can withstand floods. The media also needs to highlight the situation, so that proper attention can be brought out to this problem which can force the state to take this problem more seriously. It is hard to find a permanent solution to this problem. But, the government can at least try to find some solutions which can reduce the damages caused due to these floods to the minimum.
Eduindex News 