Assam is a state in northeastern India known for its culture, biodiversity, and tea. Every year during the monsoon season, the state experiences floods.
The Brahmaputra River causes floods in Assam. It starts in Tibet and goes through China, India, and Bangladesh.
During the rainy season, the river overflows and covers a lot of land in Assam with water and sediment.
Assam floods because of heavy rain, deforestation, soil erosion, landslides, and human activities like building dams and cities.
Floods in Assam cause great harm to people and animals. In 2022, over 5 million people in 30 districts were affected by floods, resulting in 107 human deaths and 26 animal deaths, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority.
The floods ruined crops, homes, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and other things, leading to big financial losses. The floods made it more likely for people to get sick from diseases that come from the water, like diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, and malaria.
The floods harmed animals in Assam, particularly in Kaziranga National Park, where the one-horned rhinoceros lives. The flood hurt animals. Some drowned, and others got hurt by poachers.
Assam’s government is helping people affected by floods with various measures.
Some of these measures are:
- Building walls and gates by the river to control water flow and stop flooding.
- Setting up relief camps and distribution centres to provide food, water, shelter, medical aid, and other essentials to the flood victims.
- Deploying rescue teams and boats to evacuate people from isolated areas and conduct search and rescue operations.
- Providing money to families who lost loved ones, got hurt, or lost crops, houses, or animals.
- Restoring the affected areas’ power supply, communication networks, and transport facilities.
- Conducting health camps and awareness campaigns to prevent the outbreak of diseases and infections.
- Helping people forced to leave their homes by moving them to safer places.
But these measures alone cannot stop or lessen floods in Assam. We need to find long-term solutions to prevent floods and reduce their impact.
Some of these solutions are:
- To manage it better, We need to work with other states and countries that share the Brahmaputra River. It is called integrated river basin management.
- We encourage planting trees and protecting forests and wetlands to prevent floods and erosion.
- Control how land is used and developed in areas that could flood or change how water naturally flows.
- Improve ability to handle disasters at all levels of society and government.
- Educate people about how to reduce and adapt to the risk of floods.
Assam floods happen often and can harm many people’s lives and jobs. Everyone needs to work together to find ways to reduce flood damage and make Assam stronger.
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