write an essay about the present problem of assam
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Times of India report published on August 2, 1915, said, “Referring to the extensive damage caused by heavy floods in Assam, ‘The Englishman’ today…says that the great earthquake of 1897 in some way affected the drainage of the country and since that time, floods have been of great duration and intensity.”
102 years later, a newspaper published an article on August 4, 2017, headlined, ‘Flood Fury: Why Brahmaputra’s trail of destruction has become an annual ritual in Assam’.
This year’s floods in the Brahmaputra basin have hit more than 1.7 million people, spread across nearly 2,500 villages across 19 districts in Assam.
Around 85 people have been killed so far, many see their livelihood in peril. In recent memory, this year has seen the worst flooding since 2012, where 110 people were killed and around 2.4 million affected. Apart from physical discomfort, there is a high likelihood of diseases like cholera. The government’s response in terms of aid has been tardy. It is engaged in a war of words with state-owned utilities and contractors, dodging blame.
The Brahmaputra starts in the ice deserts of Tibet, flows east and then takes a sharp turn south and west across the 7,750-metre-high Namcha Barwa, the highest peak in the region. This turn is called the ‘Great Bend’.
Here, water plunges vertiginously from 3,000 m in Tibet to 500 m in India. This river is called Dihang. It is joinedby two mighty tributaries, Dibang and Lohit. Many more major tributaries join it along its east-west flow across Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Even in winter, when the Brahmaputra is at its lowest ebb, it’s spectacular, stretching 10 km across in some places. From spring through summer, as ice melts in its upper reaches, the volume of water swells. By end-June, monsoon strikes the region.
The volume of water jumps five times, from around 20,000 cu m to 1,00,000 cu m — every second. It brushes off reinforced earth embankments, drowning villages and farms along the river.
The disaster has opened the floodgates of debate. One question is whether the embankments moderate flood losses, or whether they add to destruction. All governments believe the former. After every major flood, the Centre and the state claim to have spent hundreds of crores of rupees to strengthen embankments. But some experts say these earthen walls hem the river in, so water levels rise and flow faster. These embankments stretch for 4,500 km along the Brahmaputra, its 103 tributaries and Assam’s other big river, the Barak.
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