An expert panel constituted by the National Disaster Management Authority has issued a 10-point plan to tackle floods.
“The plan has been issued to all cities ahead of the monsoon season. The action plan follows last year’s (devastating) Chennai floods,” Kapil Gupta, Urban Flooding expert from IIT Bombay and member and convener of the expert group for NDMA guidelines on urban flooding told The Hindu .
Some of the key points in the plan include establishment of urban flood /disaster management cell in each city with technically qualified person as nodal officer, efficient cleaning of drains and holding ponds, before the start of the monsoon.
The plan also suggests that in addition to getting rainfall “now casts” and forecasts from IMD, a nodal officer should review information about thunderstorms and heavy rainfall from METARS (an aviation routine weather report), which is updated every 30 minutes.
The information should be communicated to municipal commissioners concerned to enable them to issue alerts and take preventive measures, such as closing schools if heavy rainfall and flooding is expected.
The plan also suggested installation of portable pumps at chronic flooding locations.
Besides, it suggested mapping and listing of ownership and condition of water bodies in each city and subsequently develop a monitoring framework anchored with the Urban Local Bodies. Mr. Gupta said the panel had advised formation of high-level expert committee for each city with adequate authority to take decision on release of water from reservoirs. “During heavy rainfall this committee will have be the final authority to issue gate opening and floodwater releases from dams/reservoirs,” he said.
Suggests establishment of urban flood management cell in each city with technically qualified person as nodal officer
