topic is floods
➢ How you can tackle the situation and some measures to control it.
➢ Prepare awareness among people.
➢ Explain with some pictures showing disaster and disaster management.
Answers
Answer:
When the water level in a stream or river increases and overflows its natural banks, a flood occurs. The excess water that overflows submerges adjacent land. Floods are natural occurrences in river systems.
Floods are caused due to many reasons: heavy and prolonged rainfall, heavy molting of snow, changes in the course of a river, silting of river beds, dam collapse, landslides, deforestation, land utilisation in an unscientific manner and tsunamis.
In India, floods cause greater damage than any other single disaster. They affect human lives, crops and livestock, devastate land and other property, and disrupt transport and communication lines. They occur in almost all parts of India, except the hilly and mountainous regions.
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Most of the flood-prone areas are in the middle and lower Ganga and Brahmaputra plains. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Manipur, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu are most affected. Apart from the Ganga and Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, Satluj, Jhelum, Krishna, Godavari, Mahanadi and Cauvery record frequent floods.
The government of India has taken planned steps to check floods. In the initial phase of the flood control plan, multi-purpose projects were designed: the Damodar Valley, Kosi, Bhakhra, Hirakud, Rihand among others. In 1976, the National Flood Commission was set up. The Commission identified the areas prone to flooding.
Some steps to reduce floods are as follows:
(i) Flood forecasting involves providing information regarding occurrence of floods beforehand so that timely action can be taken to reduce the destruction caused by floods. Flood forecasting was started by the Central Water Commission in November 1958. The flood forecasting network at present covers 15 states and two union territories. Daily forecasts are issued throughout the flood season from May to October every year.
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(ii) Reducing run-off by inducing and increasing infiltration of surface water into the ground in the catchment area is an effective way of checking floods. Large-scale afforestation in upper catchment areas of rivers reduces flooding.
(iii) The rivers that are prone to floods are identified and the channels of these are deepened and widened to reduce floods. Canals are built to divert excessive river water due to rains.
(iv) Dams and multi-purpose projects across rivers store surplus water in the reservoirs and reduce run-off of the river water.
(v) Embankments along rivers check the menace of floods effectively.
Hope it helps