Lakhimpur districts of Assam wore a ghastly sight as heavy monsoon rains triggered flash floods in Assam, Yamuna level crosses danger mark, flood fear in Delhi, Yamuna level crosses danger mark, flood fear in Delhi, The Sarayu River burst its banks, Gomti water level fears flood in Lucknow.

These are just a few of the headlines that have come across us through various newspapers and news channels.

Flooding of all major rivers has occurred in past few days in-spite of the fact that rainfall for the month of August has exceeded the mean rainfall (for August) record by a mere 3%.

The flooding of rivers has not only devastated millions of hectares of crop lands but also led to the displacement of humans to safe areas, loss of cattle life , immense destruction of property and land.

But who is to blame??

Nature?? Developed nations?? Our mismanagement?? Or what??

I think each of the above has its own share of pie but mismanagement tops the list, we always talk about development, we curse, we blame, we strive, we do every possible thing to develop better living conditions but we quite often miss the essence of development i.e. “SUSTAINABLE”.

In the race to attain quick development we tend to forget its consequences. We just move ahead with what we have created.

In order to achieve rapid development we have built buildings, roads, pavements, chopped trees etc without even thinking of their consequences.

I believe that all this flooding is a result of our concrete obsessed mind, we have concreted everything, we are actually surviving in concrete jungle, just take a look around and you will find ample of concrete structures. We haven’t spared enough space for water to percolate down into ground; as a result water collects and drains out into rivers through various channels and drains leading to flooding of rivers.

It’s high time that we think about rain water harvesting and encourage it on a mass scale. Rain water harvesting will not only prevent flooding and destruction but also recharge ground water table thus maintaining proper balance. It will also act as a reservoir thus providing water security for future generations.

Govt. of India should set a limit for the newly constructed buildings to have rain water harvesting facility, it should also provide installation facility at subsidised rates to encourage it in wide spread manner.

By
Ankit Maheshwari
Alumni, AIIMS

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