Odisha CM takes stock of flood situation in Malkangiri, Nabarangpur districts

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday took stock of flood situation in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts through video conferencing with the collectors of these two districts.

Collector of Malkangiri D Prashant Kumar Reddy informed that at least 423 houses have been damaged due to the rain and roads between Malkangiri and Kalimela have been disrupted due to flash flood.

Though the intensity of rain has lessened in Malkangiri, about 600 people have been shifted to relief camps as their houses were damaged, the Collector said, adding the relief materials including dry food packets are being distributed among the affected families.

Nabarangpur Collector Rashmita Panda said the authorities have stocked adequate materials. The water level in Indravati and Bhaskel rivers were below danger level.

Patnaik asked both the collectors to assess the extent of damage and take steps for repair of damaged roads at the earliest.

Valley flood risk being debated

A debate is taking place over how to manage flood risk in the future

The future of the Cuckmere Valley in East Sussex is under discussion with a first drop-in session being held for interested people to have their say.

An Environment Agency draft strategy suggests the area is allowed to go back to being a tidal estuary.

But some local councils argue that, rather than no further maintenance of existing defences, more should be built in order to keep the valley as it is.

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Flood-risk owners told not to concrete over gardens

HOMEOWNERS should be urged to stop concreting over their gardens to combat the threat of flooding, an MSP said today.

Labour environment spokeswoman Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, said "basic information" should be made available on how people could help prevent floods.

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Bangladesh says new flood-resistant rice offers hope to farmers

5 days ago

DHAKA (AFP) — A new strain of rice may be able to resist floods that destroy vast tracts of paddy fields in Bangladesh each year, offering hope to millions of poor farmers, researchers say.

The farmers lose their rice crops when fields are submerged by annual floods triggered when rivers, fed by heavy monsoon rains and melting Himalayan glaciers, burst their banks.

The rice type, called Swarna Submergence 1, developed by the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), proved to be flood resistant in trials this year in northern Bangladesh, researchers said.

Normal rice varieties cannot survive being submerged by flood water for more than three days, resulting in huge losses for farmers.

But "last month when the flood water receded from two farms in which Swarna Sub-1 was planted, we saw the rice paddy stand up again, 10 days after it was completely submerged by water," said senior researcher Abdul Mazid.

"It was simply amazing. It means the variety has proved flood-resistant. It could be a huge step towards helping millions of rice farmers who are made paupers by floods," said Mazid of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI).

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Flood defences 'inadequate'

By Chris Buratta

Oxford City Council leader John Goddard has launched an attack on the Environment Agency over what he says are inadequate flood defences.

He said he was fed up with 'excuses' and wanted action to be taken.

Floods in July wreaked havoc for many residents as the River Thames teetered on the brink of bursting.

Mr Goddard said the damage was bad enough - but added the city had been millimetres from a complete catastrophe.

The council is to conduct a wholesale review of its planning policy to ensure any new development does not add to the flooding problems.

But he has called for civic leaders and Oxfordshire MPs to join forces in a campaign for action.

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Needed: A 50-year flood plan

By Robert Bea
August 27, 2007

After two years, there's a lack coherent vision on how to provide adequate flood protection. The Army Corps of Engineers is doing 5,000 different things, one of which is flood protection. The state is even more muddled. You don't have modern technology; the quality is not what you would call world-class.

Money has been coming in dribs and drabs. Billions of dollars is big, but before you get adequate flood protection for New Orleans, you better start thinking about $50 billion to $100 billion, and 50 to 100 years to do it. The Netherlands had its Katrina in 1953, and it is still developing its system. It has expended about $50 billion. You don't have to be a professor to get it.

But we can see some strides going forward. Local citizens who want protection are now involved in getting that protection. There's a recognition that flood protection is not just a New Orleans problem, it's a national problem, it's a problem in our own Sacramento Delta; it extends to Kansas, Chicago. We've been watching it unfold across the U.S. last week.

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Oxfam: Flood Defenses in South Asia May Have Aggravated Floods
By Anjana Pasricha New Delhi 18 August 2007

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International aid agency Oxfam says poorly built flood defenses in South Asia may have aggravated the intensity of the recent flooding in the region. It calls for a reassessment of flood policies in the region, where nearly 20 million people have been affected by flooding. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.

In a recent report, aid agency Oxfam said that defenses such as river embankments built to prevent flooding in countries such as India, Nepal, and Bangladesh can make matters worse

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ActionAid India's emergency adviser, P.V. Unnikrishnan, says governments need to spend more to prepare for floods, which have become an annual occurrence.

"If you make an investment of $1 in disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction, it is thousand times more cost effective than reactionary responses which happen after the disaster," he noted. "Invest in early warning systems and early response mechanisms and most importantly, develop plans by engaging the local communities."

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Oxfam calls for radical rethink of flood policies in South Asia

Some current flood defences exacerbate crisis

International development agency Oxfam today called for a radical rethink in the way South Asian governments implement flood defence and response policy.

In a report released today called Sink or Swim: Why Disaster Risk Reduction is central to surviving floods in South Asia, Oxfam says that some flood defences, such as the construction of river embankments, can make matters worse. In India's worse hit area, Bihar, embankments have nearly trebled the flood-prone area from 2.5 million hectares to 6.9 million hectares in the last 50 years. In Nepal culverts and embankments have obstructed the flow of waters causing major floods and in Bangladesh, an estimated 75 embankments were breached in one month alone during the current floods.

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Report on Sink or Swim

Oxfam blames S Asia flood defence

The UN fears much of the farming land has been lost

Aid agency Oxfam says badly designed flood defences may have worsened the recent deadly South Asian flooding.

Oxfam said poorly built or maintained embankments on rivers obstructed the natural flow of water and caused more extensive flooding downstream.

It urged more to be done preparing people for floods to avoid post-disaster salvage spending.

Figures for the death toll vary widely from 500 to 2,300. At least 20 million people were affected.

Oxfam's report says the construction of embankments in the Indian state of Bihar, for example, had increased the flood prone area in the state from 2.5m hectares to nearly 7m.

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August 12, 2007 - 6:38 PM

Billions needed for flood-control measures

Image caption: The Hagneck canal in Bern is still in a critical zone (Keystone)

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As water levels slowly recede across Switzerland, calls for improved anti-flood measures continue to grow. The question of finance however remains unclear.

Government experts warned this weekend that an effective system of protection would require investment of several billion francs.

The government has budgeted SFr147 million ($123 million) a year for the next four years for flood-control measures.

But that is SFr100 million a year too little, according to Hans Peter Willi, head of hazard prevention at the Federal Environment Office.

Willi told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper that "more than ten billion francs" of investment was needed over the next 20 years.

But before any investments are made, those areas at risk must first be identified. The government will therefore press ahead with the creation of a hazard map.

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Flood-risk residents told to raise homes

5:00AM Monday August 13, 2007

Residents of the Far North town of Kaeo are angry at being told to raise their homes to reduce flood risk.

Far North District Council has ordered 10 houses in Dip Rd to be raised half a metre, at the owners' expense.

Kaeo, with a population of about 500, has been hit by two floods in the past four months. But residents worry the bill to lift their homes - one was quoted $40,000 for the job - is unlikely to be covered by insurance.

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How to offset flood dangers

Ron Stork

Sunday, August 12, 2007

According to federal and local government officialdom, before Hurricane Katrina struck, New Orleans was not in a floodplain. Obviously, nature thought otherwise.

The striking disparity between government pronouncements and reality highlights the fact that despite the best of intentions, the nation's flood-management policies and uncoordinated federal, state and local efforts ensure a repeat of the Katrina disaster, again and again.

This comes as no surprise to engineers, biologists and floodplain managers. In a recent article in the American Society of Civil Engineers magazine, Civil Engineering, Darryl W. Davis, senior adviser to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources, shows how disparate flood-control efforts, land-use planning processes and federal funding criteria results in a dysfunctional approach to flood protection. He writes, "Increasingly substantial evidence suggests that the present approach to managing flood threats in the United States is not sustainable with respect to public safety and economic and environmental consequences. Despite efforts by various levels of government as well as the private sector, flood damage continues to increase, more lives are threatened, and the ecological functions of floodplains continue to be degraded."

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Flood-prone states sit on remedial Bill

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi August 11, 2007

Floods have been unleashing themselves on states as an annual ritual with around 10 states reeling under its impact at present. However, a model Bill on zoning devised by the Centre as a long-term flood control measure has found no takers among states.

The Bill seeks setting up of flood zoning authorities, the supreme bodies for allowing any activity in areas which have been mapped as flood-prone.

Two non-flood prone states, Manipur and Rajasthan, are the only ones which have bothered to pass legislation based on the Bill, which was made over two decades ago. However, even these states have not bothered to enforce it yet, central government officials say.

Officials say the Bill, which was sent to states as early as 1975 by the water resources ministry, found only two takers because the law restricted activities in flood zones. Encroachments are blamed for the floods, which have been hitting more and more states over the years.

A law which could have kept encroachments under control will naturally be unpopular with states, says the National Disaster Management Authority, which is the new policy-making body on natural calamities under the home ministry.

The authority holds the water resources ministry responsible for not trying enough to get states to enact the legislation. However, the ministry says it can�t do anything as water is a state subject. Full Story

Critics: India Unprepared for Monsoons

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ

The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 4:34 PM

NEW DELHI -- Each year, the monsoon clouds roll across South Asia and killer floods follow.

With this year's flooding especially calamitous in India _ more than a 1,200 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes _ experts are blaming the government for failing to strengthen embankments, build needed dams and come up with evacuation plans.

They point to neighboring Bangladesh, a much poorer country where years of preparations helped reduce the scope of this year's suffering.

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