GUWAHATI, Oct 26 – A number of experts from India, Nepal and United Kingdom have called for a participatory and multi–disciplinary approach to confront flood hazards and extreme natural events in the Himalayan region. In the inaugural session of a training programme on Flood Hazard Mapping and Socio–economic Vulnerability Analysis, they underlined the need for an integrative way to confront floods and related phenomena in areas such as the Brahmaputra basin.
In the programme organised by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), in collaboration with a number of other agencies, including Aaranyak from Northeast India, experts conveyed that urgent efforts were needed to understand floods, erosion and displacement as extreme natural events that were becoming more frequent.
In his keynote address, noted environmental scientist, Prof Dulal Goswami focused on the morphology and flood hydrology of the Brahmaputra, a river with a basin spread over nearly 5,80,000 sq km. During its journey of 918 km in India the river creates benefits as well as hardships from people dependent on it.
An antecedent river with ‘very high water yield’, the Brahmaputra called for more detailed studies as many details about it such as its braiding characteristic and intense bank erosion were yet to be scientifically ascertained.
He said that areas such as the bedload of the river and its sediment data required more scientific scrutiny if it was to be understood correctly. Besides, the wetlands near the large river have to be studied, as millions of people living around them depended on the eco–system services provided by the wetlands.
On the need to have updated and well–researched data, he said that it was still a challenge to have such information from some departments. However, with the emergence of new technologies, gathering and analysis of data was becoming much less tedious than it was previously.
Speaking on the occasion, Rajesh Thapa and Sagar Bajracharya from ICIMOD spoke briefly about their organisation, stressing that understanding and mitigating floods was a priority area in the Hindu–Kush and Himalayan region. Every year, floods affected millions of people in Afghanistan, China, Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and the damage in money terms could be as high as USD I billion, a large amount in the context of the countries.
In his address, Craig Hutton from the School of Geography, University of Southampton, said that there was much that researchers in Europe could learn from research being carried out in the Himalayan region and vice versa. He said that he and his colleagues were prepared to share knowledge and data that could help mitigate floods in countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Representing local partner Aaranyak, Dr Partha J Das, an expert on water issues stressed the need to have a holistic approach to comprehend the complexity of floods and erosion in Northeast India.
The training programme would continue till November 2, till which participants and trainers will be travelling to select sites around the Brahmaputra to acquire first–hand information about the river and its dynamics. Some of the data would aid the creation of new maps identifying flood hazards in the region.
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