Crops destroyed, clean water scarce: How will millions of South Asia flood survivors move forward?
Swollen rivers and relentless rains have flooded an estimated 80 percent of northeastern Bangladesh, along with Assam and Meghalaya states in India, since mid-June.
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“Once you create an embankment, the space within which the river can flow, particularly during monsoons, is constricted,” explained Nirmalya Choudhury, a senior researcher with the Vikas Anvesh Foundation, a Pune-based think tank focusing on key development issues in India. “This leads to sediments getting deposited inside a narrower channel, increasing the size of the riverbed that reduces the capacity of the river to hold water.”
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Regardless of river management, much more should be done by the Assam government to minimise the loss of lives and livelihoods, said Surajit Ghosh, regional researcher at the International Water Management Institute – headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
“There could be a cross-collaboration between various government departments, such as animal husbandry, agriculture, and water resources department, based on forecasting to save crops or livelihoods,” Ghosh said. “Farmers could be given insurance days ahead for the imminent damage, or they could be asked to remove barriers that could help drain out floodwater. However, this is only possible when there’s a lot of government or co-operative funding for the farmers.”
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