Lok Sabha Question No. 842 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-12-02
Subject: Floods and Drought Forecasting
Ministry: JAL SHAKTI
Asked by: Vincent H Pala

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 842

ANSWERED ON 02.12.2021

## FLOODS AND DROUGHT FORECASTING

## 842.          SHRI VINCENT H. PALA

Will the Minister of JAL SHAKTI be pleased to state:

(a)  the  details  of  the  States  in  the  country  that  have  specialised  Early  Warning  Systems  (EWSs)  for  floods  and droughts;

(b) whether the Government is planning to adopt State specific EWSs for all drought and flood-prone States; and (c) if so, the details of fund allocation and expected date of completion thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI

## (SHRI BISHWESWAR TUDU)

(a) to (c) Central Water Commission (CWC) issues flood forecasts as a non-structural measure of flood management throughout the country. CWC also issues inflow forecasts to identified reservoirs for proper reservoir regulations during floods. Flood forecast formulation methodology used by CWC includes gauge to gauge correlation technique for  short  range  (up  to  24  hours)  forecasting  and  numerical  modelling  technique  for  5  days  advisory  forecasts. Presently, flood forecasts are issued by CWC at 331 stations (132 Inflow Forecast Stations + 199 Level Forecast Stations) in the country as per Standard Operating Procedure.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) supports flood warning services of CWC by providing observed and forecasted rainfall. CWC is working in close association with IMD and State Governments for timely flood forecast whenever the river water levels rise above warning level. In order to meet specific requirements of flood forecasting by  CWC,  IMD  operates  Flood  Meteorological  Offices  (FMOs)  at  fourteen  locations  viz.,  Agra,  Ahmedabad, Asansol,  Bhubaneshwar,  Bengaluru,  Chennai,  Guwahati,  Hyderabad,  Jalpaiguri,  Lucknow,  New  Delhi,  Patna, Srinagar and Thiruvananthapuram. Apart from this, IMD also supports Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

In  order  to  cater  to  the  services  of  hydro-meteorological  events  occurring  in  short  duration  of  time,  IMD  is issuing Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) by which a diagnostic value within a watershed required to produce flooding at the outlet of the catchment is estimated, to support the flood warning services.

IMD provides  actual  and  forecast  rainfall  information  in  different  spatial  and  temporal  scales  like  districts, States  &  meteorological subdivisions level and daily, weekly & seasonal scale to the Ministry of Agriculture for drought monitoring.

North  Eastern  Space  Applications  Centre  (NESAC)/DOS  has  developed  and  operationalized  Flood  Early Warning System (FLEWS) for Assam since 2012 till date, with funding from Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).

CWC has taken up the work of Early Flood Warning System in Ganga Basin, including inundation forecast under National Hydrology Project (NHP) covering 11 states of Ganga basin.

Under NHP, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC)/ISRO has developed medium range spatial flood early warning models for Tapi and Godavari river basins, using space based inputs in collaboration with CWC.