DROWNING NATION

I would like to draw your attention over the data below, I usually take you people away from these data either by rounding them off or keeping them in multiple of 100 to make simpler, 

But, today I want to start my writeup with data, because these figures aren't just data, they're the people like you and me who, lost their lives unnecessarily, that too from a Single state: Assam,

2012 : 124

2015 : 42

2016 : 28

2017 : 85

2018 : 12

2019 : 130

2020 : 200 and still counting...!!

And it's not like whole nation is drowned by the flood, then too every year this much people loose their life, 

As if it's a  post-monsoon mandatory ritual in which few of the states will get submerged into water.

Around 1 million people are directly affected by this flood alone in Bihar, our so called flood state, all credits to KOSI..!!

And if we turn to Assam it's more severe with around 2.4 million people affected..!!

Uttar pradesh, madhya pradesh, Kerala, gujarat are waiting for their sorrows to be addressed..!!

This is just for humans what about other creatures, we just can't imagine the real loss..!!

When life is in danger who thinks about trees, buildings, House's and belongings they simply go unaccounted.

Well, for every alternate year it's quite sure that Kaziranga or Assam in actual, is gonna drowned with Brahmaputra's water.

So, we should prepare ourselves for the losses, same goes for Bihar who's sorrow KOSI does the same there, there should be a detailed plan if not for prevention then surely for the rescue.

Several theories and research has been done in this particular matter and waht came up is developing embankments is the sole solution, will let you know about them in detail afterwards, 

What authorities do precisely, sanctions huge sum as required.. and what administration do eat it up, cz doing corruption, promoting corruption is a fundamental right for the one serving government..!! 

Right..?

And as a result 90% of the embankments built in flood prone areas comes under extremely vulnerable condition, 

Quite expected...!!

So, what needs to be done, ofcourse repair..!!

But, when will it be repaired..?

Well when it'll become an elections topic..!!

And if someone comes up with this Nobel ideal then,

Again it needs a huge sum of money, and the follow up of the tradition of using so called fundamental rights and the cycle goes on..!!

People aren't fools dying to get into Public Works Department, isn't it..?

They'll take on the legecy of building collapsing bridges..!!

So, let us now get our answer to the very question, that why it floods every year..?

Let me list few of the reasons down in sequential manner:

1. Brahmaputra has a very graded channel, which means it shifts it's channel every now and then, called as unstable river..!!

2. And second one is of course to our memory revival as we studied it in our primary "DEFORESTATION" don't have any solution to it..!!

3. Other one is also the same but would like to introduce it differently,so we owe a vehicle, have a house, but we park it where..? 

On the roads in front of our houses, so what we are doing, encroaching up the free land that too for free, and we are habbitual to it as doing it since always.. first for crops, then for shelter, then for business, then for extraction, and when river do so.. we call it bad..!! 

And that too when they are claiming back their own land, aren't encroaching up like us..!!

Not fair.

4. Our metropolitan cities do blunder by clogging the drainage system, hence an hour is sufficient to get water into your car, that's surely not flood, but creates unrest.

5. And when I'm done blaming everyone, why to leave the nature, so a shout out to climate change is must, as it's the reason for everything these days..kind of trending.

Thank god no politician came up calling, I lost the elections due to climate change.

On a serious note if we have a look on the weather pattern of past few years we will find how fluctuating it is, leading to Extreme rainfall in some areas resulting in floods, but this extreme rainfall is short lived hence responsible for drought too, so we have to deal with flood and drought in the same year, which is quit unnatural, and our mountains as usual face landslide, clout bursting, earthquakes and much more.

Accept it or deny, we all somewhere knew this was meant to be done sooner or later, but we're quite early into this catastrophe, there are other countries as well who are water locked, situated on the bank of rivers but they take preventive measures aren't drowned away like this, 

for example Netherlands, a country which reclaimed land from the sea then too never faced such flood situation, due to its decisive planning, they plan anything related to river development or encroachment keeping in mind the worst possible case of flooding in next 1000 year's..!!

And this Margin is huge..!!

Their constitution has an article, reading right to be protected from flood, 

pretty serious.. right..?

There are endless plans they have executed, we can follow it up, not fully but at least, to an extent which can prevent disaster.

Praying God is not the only solution left, people lost their home, work, family, everything...What they would have been eating we don't know, for how long they'll have to live in those shelters we don't know, when was the last time got food to feed their children's we don't know, each one of them got food or not we don't know, what we know is Sachin pilot finding the breakthrough, Amitabh Bacchan is covid positive, and  not to forget Shushant Singh Rajput and his mysterious suicide.

I'm not blaming media for anything, but they are supposed to be the voice of suppressed and needy one's, not the one's who already have everything, things won't change just by saying but everyone knows the power of the media, if they decided they can push administration to do anything.

Well what can be done then..?

Building embankments, channels, highways, planting trees, giving room to the rivers and much more..!!

Embankments are the wall of stone made beside the river to prevent it from drowning the life settled beside it, 

Usually it's within the flood plain due to which there is increase in the intensity of flow of water, as well as there is problem of sedimentation too, so we need proper and timely maintenance, government should increase its width so as to get rid of embankments breaching, i.e the breaking of the embankments.

Honesty and concern is what we are seeking from the authorities as well as the government, floods aren't just about loss of life and belongings, but much more.. crops, food, health, sanitation and amidst all this there is a pandemic going on, how would have been these people maintaining social distancing, preventing outside food , have any medical aid when whole hospital is flooded, and for that D thing which we are trying to get rid of.. " COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION", what's the reality we better know.

Just left with hope that things will get back to normal, they'll get back to their homes soon, floods will become election topic some day, a separate fund will be allocated to take preventive measures for floods ever year, awareness programmes will be runed so that next time not a single person or animal will give away their lives unnecessarily.

I know NDRF is working hard to save every life possible, but it hurts when measures are taken when that worst thing is already occurred, we know even with the full capacity we are not gonna save each one of them, so better we prepare before.

Data source: 

http://www.cwc.gov.in/publications?title=Flood+damage