Preparedness Essential

THE revelation made by Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi, in the House of Representatives, that 72 districts of the country are reeling under the devastating effects of floods and landslides is quite shocking. The death toll was put at 106 and 6 persons missing so far this year. In fact, monsoon has its own erratic way of affecting the country. This year too the rain has been quite heavy especially during July-August. The loss of life and property every year is quite alarming. Floods and landslides lead to the disruption of normal life and there is much talk every year of mitigating the impacts through various measures at the government level as well at the local level. Despite the priority laid on preventive aspects every year, without fail, not much has been achieved as far as controlling the regular occurrence of floods and landslides are concerned.

This year’s figure reveals that till date, in the districts affected by floods and landslides, 69 persons have been injured, 8,208 families affected, 2,508 houses destroyed. many bridges, schools and public property damaged. The loss of property itself is estimated to be about Rs. 440 million. These figures are themselves sufficient to indicate the extent to which the country has to suffer in terms of the loss of life and property.

Floods and landslides are an annual phenomenon. Though these natural calamities cannot be avoided completely, steps can be taken to minimise the effects. It may be worthwhile herein to say that environmental degradation and uncalled for human activities are responsible for increasing the magnitude of the natural calamities. It is a well known fact that the forest coverage in the country is decreasing at a faster pace to meet the demand for more farm land, timber and wood. This has resulted in bare mountains and large tracts of land are going the desertification way. The loss of green coverage has resulted in the loss of top fertile soil which has contribute to the raising of the beds of the perennial rivers thereby leading to unprecedented floods and landslides.

The need grows for river control projects to take into consideration all the facets of the problem. Besides this the afforestation programmes must increase pace to keep up with the destruction of forests which has increased drastically in recent years. For all this to materialise the necessity is for making the local people aware of the catastrophes that they can invite with the unwanton destruction of forests without resorting to afforestation attempts.

It is agreed that when natural calamities strike, the first and foremost need is to provide immediate relief to the affected people. There is a fund established for the purpose and Rs. 9.1 million has been disbursed to provide relief to the people in the affected areas. This is one aspect of the measures to tackle the effects of floods and landslides. Besides this, it is urgent that measures be initiated so that the natural calamities like floods and landslides inflict the minimum of damage. The measures for contingency must be in place not only prior to and during the monsoon season but throughout the year so that even flash floods can be tackled effectively. Herein it must be remembered that monitoring aspects must also receive priority in the overall scheme of action plan to combat floods and landslides.