Hazards, Disasters And Your Community - United Nations ...

to keep flood water away, blocking or sealing of doors and windows of houses etc. Houses may be
elevated by building on raised land. Buildings should be constructed away from water bodies.
Flood Management In India, systematic planning for
flood management commenced with the Five Year
Plans, particularly with the launching of National
Programme of Flood Management in 1954. During the
last 48 years, different methods of flood protection
structural as well as non-structural have been adopted in
different states depending upon the nature of the
problem and local conditions. Structural measures
include storage reservoirs, flood embankments, drainage
channels, anti-erosion works, channel improvement
works, detention basins etc. and non-structural
measures include flood forecasting, flood plain zoning,
flood proofing, disaster preparedness etc. The flood Slum stilt houses in the outskirts of Dhaka city.
management measures undertaken so far have provided
reasonable degree of protection to an area of 15.81
million hectares through out the country. The various
flood management measures undertaken through the
successive five year plans (upto 3/2000) are
summarized below:
Flood embankments
Drainage channels
Towns protection works
Villages raised
33630 km
37904 km
2337 Nos.
4713Nos.
COMMUNITY BASED MITIGATION
Sedimentation clearance, reforestation programme, dike
and flood wall construction can be taken as part of the
community based mitigation programme. The community
can participate in flood fighting by organizing work
parties to repair embankments, pile sandbags and
stockpile needed materials. Farming practices have to
be flood compatible. Special varieties of seeds are
available which can be harvested during the flood
season. Houses constructed need to be flood resistant
and multipurpose shelter should be constructed by the
community. Banks of the earth can be raised and it can
give shelter to the community as well as the livestock
during the time of floods.
WEB RESOURCES:
• www.cwc.nic.in website of the Central Water Commission of
India, (CWC) of India.
• http://wrmin.nic.in website of the Ministry of Water Resources,
GoI.
• www.imd.ernet.in Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)
provides all India weather report, end of monsoon season
report, weather charts, satellite images, rainfall maps,
earthquake reports and severe weather warnings.
• www.ndmindia.nic.in Natural Disaster Management India.
Provides current news on Flood, Drought and Cyclones,
Weather Links from NIC and weather conditions/temperatures on
Indian Ocean (www.weather.nic.in).
www.nih.ernet.in India National Institute of Hydrology perform tasks
such as Ground water zone mapping, Flood plain mapping, land use,
salinity, sedimentation, Soil erosion, water-logging etc.
Khash Dhalai Flood Shelter.
Flood shelters like this are just one example of how
communities can protect themselves from the worst of
the floods. Banks of earth are raised by up to 5 metres
and cover an area of several kilometres. The people
dig a huge pond in the middle and use this earth to
raise the ground. Whenever the floods come, people
can bring their livestock, possessions – even their
homes – to safety. The pond in the middle becomes an
important source of food, as it is used to farm fish.
Mobile homes
Families build specially designed homes made of
jute canes. During the floods they can be dismantled
and taken to higher ground.
“ t o w a r d s s a f e r I N D I A ” 35