National Floodplains Zoning Policy

What is the News?

The Ministry of Jal Shakti has informed the Rajya Sabha about the National Floodplains Zoning Policy.

What is Flood Plain Zoning?

Flood Plain Zoning has been recognized as an effective non-structural measure for flood management. 

Flood-plain zoning measures aim at demarcating zones or areas likely to be affected by floods of different magnitude or frequencies and probability levels and specify the types of permissible developments in these zones so that whenever floods actually occur, the damage can be minimized.

The action for demarcation of flood plain areas and regulating the activities therein is to be undertaken by respective state governments.

Assessment of Flood Prone Area of the Country: The assessment of flood-prone areas of the country has been carried out by different expert committees:

1) The Rashtriya Barh Ayog(RBA) had in the year 1980 estimated the total area liable to floods in the country as 40 Million hectares (Mha), 2) The extent of the maximum area affected by floods as per the Working Group(WG) Report on Flood Management and Region Specific Issues in 2011 is 49 Mha.

Model Draft Bill for Flood Plain Zoning 

A Model Draft Bill for Food Plain Zoning Legislation was circulated by the Union Government to all the States. 

The Bill talks about flood zoning authorities, surveys and delineation of flood plain area, notification of limits of flood plains, prohibition of the use of the flood plains, compensation and most importantly removing obstructions to ensure free flow of water

The states of Manipur, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir had enacted the legislation. 

Source: This post is based on the article “National Floodplains Zoning Policy” published in PIB on 15th Mar 2022.