FLOOD PREVENTION- A WISE CRACK

FLOOD PREVENTION- A WISE CRACK

Bikash Choudhury

In Medicine they say “prevention is better than cure” the adage is, apparently, as old as the mankind has come to inhabit this earth. However, in India we use this only in very selectively. Recent down pour starting from the beginning of Durga Puja across the country has resulted in flood in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. As per news report 40,000 people in Balasore in Orissa, 1.8 lakh people affected in Krishna district of A.P and 132 deaths have occurred and 1 lakh houses destroyed in Karnataka and further, 1.6 lakh evacuated in Karnataka and 1,3 lakh people to be evacuated in Vijayawada. In total over half a million people have been severely affected by floods this time and equally appalling is the fact that every year some part of our country gets under water during monsoons devastating human life, livestock, farms, houses, rural & urban infrastructure worth Rs 5-10 thousand crore, on an average, in a back of the envelope calculation. Can’t we prevent or at least minimize this colossal destruction of National Wealth year after year? We can allocate a quarter of the amount for a multi disciplinary research in one of our IIT for five years, to find a permanent solution to floods for good. Hope, some one in south block would pick of the thread sooner than later.