Managing embankments: 

Managing embankments: 

Context

• Life had come to a standstill in the Ganga-Brahmaputra flood plains with large tracts of land reeling under floods.   
  Consequences of flood

• The flood has resulted into submerged houses, broken bridges, and wasted railway tracks.
• The fury of the waters in the Kishanganj and Katihar districts of Bihar had cut off the road and rail services in north Bengal.
• Consequently, Northeast India’s connectivity by rail with the rest of India has also got disconnected.
• Access to water and sanitation is getting difficult.
• Open use of contaminated water is leading to peak in water-borne diseases.
• All agricultural land is either covered with sand or remains waterlogged.

Main cause:  the failure of embankments

• An embankment is an uplifted earthen structure constructed along the river channel to artificially reduce the size of the floodplains by constricting floodwaters to a narrow stretch.
• The land outside the embankment is supposed to be safe from floods.
• However, embankment breach results into flooding the “safe” areas.

What is required?

• A paradigm shifts in the way these embankments are managed is need of the hour.
• It is vital to involve the community that is close to the embankment in its management.

Result of the study done over 100 villages
The study of over 100 villages in the Ganga-Brahmaputram floodplains found that villages in these areas are exposed to diverse water-related hazards depending on their location vis-a-vis an embankment.

• Those located inside the embankment are vulnerable to floods and riverbank erosion.
• Those outside are prone to extended periods of flood.
• This results when the construction of an embankment causes the drainage lines to be blocked.
• The regulators in the embankments become dysfunctional, or when there is a backflow of the larger river.
• The people in these “safe” areas suffer from a constant fear of embankment breach, which is not entirely unfounded.