PATNA: The 2-day international webinar on “Revisiting Flood Management and Irrigation Improvement Issues in Bihar”, with experts attending from Nepal, Italy and other parts of the country and abroad ended with a conclusion to expedite sustained efforts to mitigate the flood and its resulting miseries.
Hosted by the Bihar government’s Water Resource Department (WRD) from August 6 to 7, experts in the webinar discussed the structural changes needed to mitigate the devastating impact of floods in Bihar which affect more than 76% of northern Bihar's population.
Bihar's WRD minister Sanjay K Jha inaugurated the webinar talking about the management of water resources and irrigation improvement measures that are being implemented with the help of expert technical assistance to mitigate the impact of floods in the state.
“Bihar is working with all possible expertise and resources to tame the flood recurrence and hopes to overcome it one day”, Jha said. Jha also acquainted the experts as to how the state government, "under the leadership of CM Nitish Kumar has been working to make proper utilisation of floodwater for irrigation purposes in various parts of the state."
Jha said that 28 districts out of 38 districts in Bihar are flood-prone and 15 of them are severely affected by floods. He admitted that despite taking all steps to mitigate its impacts, the state government has to incur huge expenditures on maintenance of and anti-erosion works to control floods.
"Bihar is densely populated with limited land available for use. Therefore, we cannot implement few techniques used globally as flood prevention measures like making sponges cities or building big reservoirs,” said Sanjeev Hans, Principal secretary of WRD, who was moderating the Webinar on Saturday, August 7.
The state government is trying to ensure proper utilisation of water for irrigation in addition to taking preventive measures to check the flood impact continuously, Hans said.
"Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also asked to work on the linking of small rivers in order to disperse water in times of flood," he said.
“One of the effective measures taken by us to mitigate the impacts of the flood is that the WRD has started soliciting the partnership of locals to efficiently monitor the embankments in all flood-affected districts. And it has helped a lot in preventing breaches and early detection in breaches in Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Adhwara, Mahananda, Lalbakeya, Punpun and Khiroi rivers”, Hans said.
Hans also added that a toll-free number 18003456145 has also been made functional for receiving information on threats of breaches or breaches detected at early stages by people.
“Early warning system, Real Data Time Acquisition System, Spatial Database System, use of remote sensing & GIS and other arrangements have been taken up by the WRD,” Hans told the experts from Italy, Nepal, IIT Roorkee, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Lucknow.
Other experts who attended the first day of the international Webinar included Dr RN Sankhua from Hyderabad, N.Dinesh Kumar, Manoj Chauhan, Neera Shreshtha Pradhan (Nepal), RR Upadhaya, Minimol Corulla, Mccaferry from Italy and others.