The burned hand teaches best. Learning a tough lesson from the devastating flood that inundated 86% of the state, leaving a trail of destruction and despair, Kerala has prepared a contingency plan for flood risk mitigation ahead of the onset of monsoon. While the government machinery is all geared up to combat any emergency situation posed by a natural calamity, experts say the risks are enormous and not enough has been done to protect people living in vulnerable areas.
Though the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), the Irrigation Department and the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) have formulated an Emergency Action Plan and issued guidelines to the District Collector, there is no clarity on who will coordinate the emergency rescue and relief operations. There has been no public hearing on implementation of the plan and the government has not been able to alleviate the fears of people living in vulnerable areas. “The biggest challenge is coordination between various government departments. The Emergency Action Plan and guidelines will provide a direction on which each department should work. But there should be a point person who will coordinate the rescue and relief operations. What we saw during the 2018 flood was an instantaneous dynamic response which cannot be expected every time. The SDMA, which should coordinate all efforts during an emergency situation, lacks teeth,” National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) scientist K K Ramachandran told Express.
On the fear among the public, who are yet to recover from the traumatic experience they encountered, experts said building confidence among the people living in vulnerable areas was important. “Do we have an action plan for river management and flood management? A year after facing a calamity, we are yet to prepare an inundation map. There are talks about red alert and orange alert. But the common man does not know where he should go if his house submerges. The local bodies have an important role to play. The role of the employees at the ground should be well defined,” said an expert.
“We should have a community-level Disaster Management Plan. Due to lack of an inundation map the implementing authorities do not know which areas will submerge in case of heavy rain. Guidelines provided by the departments will be helpful to employees. We should have long-term action plans, said Kerala Disaster Management former head KG Thara.
The Disaster Management Authority said alerts will be issued 36 hours ahead of releasing water from the dams. Early alert will help people take safety measures. Do our dam managers have the expertise to say how much water will be released? If we can know the volume of water release it will provide an idea about the intensity of flood to the people living downstream. Apart from flood map, surface runoff, flow diversion and land type are factors deciding the flood coverage which we are unable to predict.
“This time, the monsoon is arriving late, but the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a normal monsoon. So, the state is going to receive intense rainfall over a reduced period. This increases the chances of flood. Though the government had decided to desilt the dams to improve water holding capacity it has not been implemented. We should take precautionary measures in view of intense rain and issue alerts to the people in advance providing time for evacuation. The local bodies should inform the people in vulnerable areas about the relief camps in advance,” said Earth Scientist Subhash Chandra Bose.
According to V P Dinesan, senior principal scientist of Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) who is also the Geomatics Division head, the state should have an early warning system.
“IMD should provide accurate information on the intensity of rain. Instead of giving alerts about heavy, very heavy and extreme rainfall, it should improve the accuracy of prediction. As per IMD parameters, extreme rainfall means more than 204 mm rainfall. Though there was an alert of extreme rainfall in August 2018, we didn’t know how intense it would be. The state received 414 mm rainfall from August 15 to 17. When the dams are full, the impact of heavy rainfall will be extensive as the surface soil will be saturated and the dams will not be able to hold the flood waters,” he said.