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August 2017 southasiadisasters.net 1 INTRODUCTION ABOUT THIS ISSUE Floods as an Opportunity n 2017, South Asia was n 2017 South Asia was ravaged by to look ahead to even greater systemic Iravaged by devastating Iunprecedented flooding that affected challenges — poor connectivity, limited floods that caused close to 41 million people across India, role of private sector, and knowledge management — and start evolving widespread death and Bangladesh and Nepal. While the death and destruction unleashed by these suitable solutions for them till 2030. destruction. It has been floods is tragic, it also represents an estimated that these floods opportunity to learn the necessary Floods do not spare the hotspots of have led to 1,200 casualties lessons to set South Asia firmly onto a terrorism or conflict and as a result pose and affected 40 million safer and greener development trajectory. a threat to people and prosperity in people across India, Nepal recovery. Estimates suggest over 100 and Bangladesh. India is By highlighting the existing gaps in the districts in India alone suffer from such perhaps one of the most response, preparedness and relief a double threat. Almost each country flood prone countries in the activities undertaken by various state in South Asia has similar conflict and non-state actors the key problems affected areas. Thus, floods impact local world. The 2017 floods have have been identified. This present issue security, governance, and human rights raised some very serious and of Southasiadisasters.net aims to just that. protection. inconvenient questions about the country's Local flood studies that explore and Local faith based organisation can be preparedness to such floods. account for local action, results, and brought in more directly to think find opportunities are needed to build up a way out. In India Shri Sadguru has This issue of bottom up knowledge resources for taken on initiative titled "Save our Southasiadisasters.net is titled South Asia wide actions on floods. rivers" that can be one such example. "India Floods 2017" and River basin or national flood plans are In Colombo, Partnership for Faith and a first step but not enough any more. Development is organising largest ever focuses on how the floods in event titled “Localizing Response to 2017 have affected different AIDMI's recent work in Nepal and Humanitarian Need: The Role of regions of country and the Bangladesh finds that two items in Religious and Faith-based damage suffered by them. It flood management can be made more Organisations”, October 16 to 18, 2017, also tries to examine India's effective. One, delivering flood for local faith organisations. underlying vulnerability to management results and two, working floods which has been in partnership with government and For years Asian Disaster Preparedness exacerbated in recent years non-government actors in flood Center (ADPC) in Bangkok has run regional training courses on disaster mainly due to unplanned management. There two need more attention. management providing necessary and development, high fundamental knowledge and skills in population density & It is time to move ahead from project flood risk management. Inputs for first settlement of people in flood and programme approach to systemic sources came from Duryog Nivaran. plains, old infrastructure, approach to flood management and Perhaps it is time to take such capacity weak river embankments mitigation. In recent years, the political building initiatives to empower local and also increase in extreme leadership has greatly influenced communities with the adequate events, including high national and sub-national priorities and response and preparedness capacities to respond to the challenges of flooding. rainfall in a short duration. processes of development. How can these influences be directed to unfinished development agendas such Traditional knowledge systems for This issue analyses these as decentralised and ecosystem-based flood management have existed for repeated incidents of flood mitigation in a time bound manner? centuries in South Asia. It is vital that flooding in the country we leverage this traditional wisdom through a systemic lens that Floods simply do not result in the and use it in conjunction with modern takes an interdisciplinary inundation of an area alone; they also DRR techniques. One of the most and multi-sectoral result in the displacement of people, eminent scenographers of our times, perspective of India's halting of economic activity and Rajeev Sethi, calls South Asia's legacy of traditional knowledge systems, flooding problem. largescale livelihood disruption. These are just a few of the detrimental impacts including of local flood management, – Kshitij Gupta of floods which pose a challenge to the has awed the world but will wither away local and national institutions. It is time if not conserved. – Mihir R. Bhatt 2 southasiadisasters.net August 2017 EFFECTIVE PREPAREDNESS Note on Flood Situation ihar, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and has climbed above 1,000 Disaster management agency BArunachal Pradesh continue to notwithstanding the brave efforts of spokesman Mr. T.P. Gupta said that bear the brunt of floods as the death the rescue teams who have done an 86 people had died and more than toll rises. According to the state exceptional job to reach out to two million were affected by the disaster management authorities of millions of stranded people by the disaster there. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 415 people region's worst monsoon disaster in have died in the floods in two states recent years. The state borders Nepal, where 146 where more than 10 million people people have died and 80,000 homes were affected. Thousands of army soldiers and destroyed in what the United disaster management force and para Nations is calling the worst flooding According to the Bihar State Disaster military troops have been deployed in 15 years. Nepal's home ministry Management Authority (BSDMA) across India, Bangladesh and Nepal, warned the death toll could rise as 229,000 people had been where authorities say a total of 1,013 relief teams reach more remote parts rehabilitated across 1,085 relief bodies have been recovered since 10 of the impoverished country. camps in the state. Even Prime August, when intense rainfall begun Minister Narendra Modi conducted causing floods in Indian states and The situation was slowly easing in an aerial survey to assess the extent neighbouring Nepal and West Bengal and Assam, two states of flood damage on Saturday. Bangladesh. where 223 people had already died. Floods in Assam—the second wave "We have 21 teams that are working Though all three countries suffer to hit the state in less than four across Uttar Pradesh and several frequent flooding during the months—have wrought widespread teams working in Bihar. With monsoon rains, the Red Cross has destruction, killing 71 people and assistance from the Indian Air Force, termed the latest disaster as "the forcing animals to seek higher a lot of affected people have been worst in decades" in some parts of ground. One Bengal tiger and 15 rare airlifted to safety. The relief and South Asia. It says entire one-horned rhinos were found dead rescue operations are ongoing in communities have been cut off and and conservationists feared there both states," a National Disaster many are short of food and clean could be further loss of life. Response Force (NDRF) release water as the tragedy prolongs stated. amidst continuing rains. In West Bengal, where 152 people have died, hundreds of thousands A home ministry official stated that "It has been a difficult year," said have escaped submerged villages by even though relief work was Anil Shekhawat, spokesman for boats and makeshift rafts to reach ceaselessly being carried out across India's National Disaster Response government aid stations set up by both states in the flood affected Force (NDRF). "In the last few the state administration. districts, the overflowing of several months there have been floods in rivers and constant rains tended to western, eastern and northern parts Across the border in Bangladesh, slow down rescue operations. of the country," Shekhawat said. water levels were slowly returning to normal in the main Brahmaputra Besides claiming hundreds of lives, In Bihar, the state disaster and Ganga rivers. The government's the floods have also destroyed management authorities said death disaster response body said the death villages and crops across the north- toll climbed to 367. According to toll stood at 137, with more than 7.5 eastern region. Hundreds of Anirudh Kumar, a top state disaster million affected since flooding hit thousands of people across several management official, there are still the riverine nation. states are living in relief camps. nearly 11 million people affected in 19 districts of the state. He added Every year hundreds die in But it is not just humans, thousands nearly 450,000 flood evacuees had landslides and floods during the of animals including cattle are also taken shelter in government refuges. monsoon season that hits India's suffering and fighting for their lives. In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, southern tip in early June and sweeps floods have swamped nearly half of across the South Asia region for four Meanwhile, the death toll from this vast state of 220 million, the months. floods sweeping entire South Asia country's most populous region. – AIDMI Team August 2017 southasiadisasters.net 3 REDUCING RISK India Floods 2017 loods have been a recurrent human casualties in hundreds, Surendranagar, Ahmedabad, Morbi, F phenomenon in India that lead extensive damage to infrastructure Gandhinagar, Kutch, Mehsana and to huge losses to lives, properties, and also severely affected the Valsad are hit by the large-scale livelihood systems, infrastructure animals. The Inter-Ministerial flooding. Banaskantha and Patan are and public utilities. As a matter of Central Team visited Assam to take among the worst-hit districts in the fact, 12% of the total landmass of the stock of situation, and Prime state due to heavy rains and flooding country (40 million hectare) is flood Minister Mr.

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