Lok Sabha Question No. 69 (STARRED), answered on 2022-07-21
Subject: Management and Control of Flood
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Rama Devi, Locket Chatterjee

THE MINISTER OF JAL SHAKTI

(SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)

(a) to (c) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF JAL SHAKTI, DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES, RIVER DEVELOPMENT & GANGA REJUVENATION

## LOK  SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION NO. *69

ANSWERED ON 21.07.2022

## Management and Control of Flood

- †*69  SHRIMATI RAMA DEVI MS. LOCKET CHATTERJEE: Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state: (a) the details of project proposals pending or sanctioned by the Government for management and control of flood  situation  in  parts  of  Bihar,  Northern  Odisha,  West  Bengal,  Madhya  Pradesh,  Jammu  &  Kashmir  and Jharkhand due to Bagmati, Budhi Gandak, Lal Bakiya, Kosi, Tawi and Subarnarekha rivers; (b) whether the Government has conducted any study to control and manage flood situation in the said rivers; and (c)  if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  recommendations  made  in  this  regard  and  the  reaction  of  the Government thereto?

## ANSWER

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF STARRED QUESTION NO. *69 TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 21.07.2022 REGARDING 'MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL OF FLOOD'.

- (a) Flood management, including erosion control, falls within the purview of the States. Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by concerned State Governments as per their priority. The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and also promotional financial assistance for management of floods in critical areas.

Flood protection and flood management measures are broadly classified as under-

- (i)  Structural  Measures - The structural measures for flood control which bring relief to the flood prone areas by reducing flood flows and thereby reducing the flood levels.
- (ii)  Non-Structural  Measures-  Facilitating  timely  evacuation  of  the  people  and  shifting  of  their  movable property  to  safer  grounds  by  having  advance  warning  of  incoming  flood  through  setting  up  a  flood forecasting system. Discouraging creation of valuable assets/settlement of the people in the areas subject to frequent flooding i.e. enforcing flood plain zoning regulation.

Integrated  flood  approach  aims  at  adopting  judicious  mix  of  structural  and  non-structural  measures  to provide a reasonable degree of protection against flood damages at economic cost..

To strengthen the structural measures of flood management, Government of India had implemented during XI & XII Plan Flood Management Programme (FMP) for providing Central Assistance to States for works related to river management, flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sea erosion, etc. which subsequently continued as a component of "Flood Management and Border Areas Programme" (FMBAP) for  the  period  from  2017-18  to  2020-21  and  has  been  further  extended  up  to  September  2022.  So  far Central  Assistance  amounting  to  Rs.  6,686.79  crore  has  been  released  to  Union  Territories/State Government  under  this  programme  since  inception.  The  415  projects  completed  projects  under  this programme have given protection to an area of around 4.99 mha and protected a population of about 52.21 million.  The details of projects completed in the States of Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand under FMBAP (no project has been implemented in the State of Madhya Pradesh) are-

|   Sl. No | State       |   Projects in numbers |   Area benefitted (Lakh Hectares) |   Population benefitted (In Lakh) |
|----------|-------------|-----------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
|        1 | Bihar       |                    42 |                             28.67 |                            223.46 |
|        2 | J&K         |                    19 |                              2.32 |                             15.32 |
|        3 | Jharkhand   |                     3 |                              0.18 |                              1.97 |
|        4 | Odisha      |                    66 |                              1.94 |                             11.54 |
|        5 | West Bengal |                    16 |                              0.94 |                             23.57 |

For non structural measures, Central Water Commission (CWC) is the nodal organisation entrusted with the task of flood forecasting and early flood warnings in the country. Presently, CWC issues flood forecasts for 331 forecasting stations (199 river level forecast stations & 132 dam/ barrage inflow forecast stations). These stations cover 20 major river basins in 23 States and 2 Union Territories. In order to provide more lead time to the local authorities to plan evacuation of people & take other remedial measures, CWC has recently  developed  basin  wise flood  forecasting  model  for  5  days'  advance  flood  forecast  advisory  at identified flood forecasting and inflow forecasting stations.

(b) & (c) In  order  to  formulate the strategy for  flood management works in the entire country and river management activities and works in the border areas,  a Committee was constituted by NITI Aayog under the chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog with officials from various Departments/ Ministries of Government of India, experts from the field and Principal Secretaries from States of Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  West  Bengal,  Punjab,  Assam,  Arunachal  Pradesh,  Tripura,  Madhya  Pradesh  and Kerala were included as the members of this Committee. The Final Report of the Committee Constituted for  Formulation  of  Strategy  for  Flood  Management  Works  in  Entire  Country  and  River  Management Activities and Works Related to Border Areas (2021- 26) was issued by NITI Aayog during January 2021.

The major recommendations of the above committee are-

- o FMBAP scheme to be continued for the period 2021-26, i.e., co-terminus with the period of 15th Finance Commission with the provision of inclusion of new projects for funding under the scheme. The selection of the schemes will be undertaken in consultation with NITI Aayog and State Government.
- o Continuous  efforts  to  be  made  towards  modernization  in  collection  of  hydrometeorological  data,  flood forecast  formulation  and  forecast  dissemination.  Further  simplified  data  dissemination  policy  for  use  of data by the States particularly regarding trans-boundary rivers to be developed.
- o Focus on scientific research in development of model based system to forecast flash flood with sufficient lead time.
- o Preparation  of  Rule  curve/  level  for  all  reservoirs  and  updated  accounting  change  in  rainfall  trend  and changing demand over the years due to rapid increase of population, urbanisation and industrialisation.
- o The long-term structural solution to floods lies in construction of large storage reservoirs which moderate flood peaks by adopting appropriate reservoir operation schedule.
- o To  get  benefit  of  flood  control,  it  is  essential  to  curb  encroachment  of  natural  basins  and  restore  these basins to their natural state as a measure for flood control.
- o Taking up projects for interlinking of rivers for diversion of flood water to water scarce areas.
- o Prohibition of reclamation of the existing wetlands/ natural depressions by State Governments and using them for flood moderation.

The  above  recommendations  of  NITI  Aayog  have  been  taken  into  consideration  for  implementation  of FMBAP for the period 2021-26 and formulation of policies at Central Government level.