The performance review report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that was tabled in Parliament in June 2017 says the States have failed to conduct a scientific assessment of flood-prone areas.
The CAG’s report on schemes for flood control and flood forecasting says the recommendations of the National Flood Commission 1978-80 for identifying areas affected by floods have not been complied with, says N.K. Sukumaran Nair, Pampa Parirakshana Samiti general secretary.
The report says no State has made a scientific assessment of the flood-prone areas or prepared master plans for flood management.
Mr. Nair told The Hindu that the audit report also observed that no dam-break analysis had been conducted in respect of any of the 61 dams in Kerala.
The report says an inundation map should be prepared as per the recommendations of the National Flood Commission. There are 184 flood forecasting stations in the country. However, no such station has come up in 10 States, including Kerala, says Mr. Nair.
The drainage systems in residential areas are not adequate or the unchecked civil constructions in the name of development have impeded the drainage system. Uunscientific and uncontrolled sand-mining has led to drastic lowering of the riverbeds. The water spread area has been reduced considerably, leading to increase in river flow velocity, the report says.
Destruction of the floodplain wetlands and hills in the catchment areas (rain-fed areas) has further aggravated the flood situation. The water holding capacity of the inland floodplain wetlands and paddy fields has been drastically reduced due to reclamation, besides blocking the drainage systems as well as flood escape routes.
PAP, Kuttanad package
Mr. Nair said there were provisions for rejuvenation of the Varattar, Kolarayar, and Areethodu as well as the major distributories and flood escape drainage systems in the upper Kuttanad region in the Centrally sponsored Pampa Action Plan (PAP) sanctioned in 2003. The Kuttanad Package sanctioned in 2008 envisaged restoration of canals along 650 km and 55 public ponds.
A proposal for conservation of the Achencoil, Pampa, Manimala, and Meenachil rivers draining into the Kuttanadu water system had also been included in the Kuttanadu Package. But none of the proposals for water conservation and regeneration of ecology proposed in the PAP and the Kuttanad Package had been considered by the authorities concerned, Mr. Nair alleged.