Droughts and Floods

Tired from the Baidyanath dhamyatra (pilgrimage) in the nearby town of Deoghar, Nunlal Kamath is stealing a quick nap on a charpoy outside his house. His house is right on the western bank of Kosi, north Bihar’s river of sorrow, in a particularly flood-prone area where there are no high grounds or flood platforms nearby.  

Much of the district floods every year during the monsoon season. In August 2017, Kamath’s village at Basipatti in Madhepur block of Madhubani district saw the worst flooding after the 2007 deluge.

River Teesta originates at Tso Lamo, Sikkim, flows through West Bengal and then enters the Rangpur division in Bangladesh. It is the fourth largest among 54 rivers shared by India and Bangladesh. The river basin is populated with over 30 million people who depend on the river water for drinking and domestic use, irrigation, industry and religious activities. Besides fishing, agriculture is one of the important sources of livelihood in the basin and sustains more than 90 percent of the rural population. 

Rajasthan is all geared up for the open defecation free (ODF) status well before the national deadline of October 2, 2019. According to the assistant engineer of the nagar parishad, Resha Singh, 4.75 lakh toilets have been constructed since October 2, 2014 in Alwar district which is about to be declared ODF.

Shimla reels under severe water crunch

There seems to be no end to the drinking water crisis in the Bemetara district in Chhattisgarh. It is only becoming worse with every passing day. More than 40 percent of all the hand pumps installed in the district have run dry due to the depletion of groundwater level.  

“Our village is also called the swimmers’ village because almost all of us including small children know how to swim. To learn swimming is not a luxury but a necessity for us.

The mountain range that runs along the west coast of peninsular India from Tamil Nadu through Kerala, Karnataka, and Goa to Maharashtra is known as the Western Ghats and is very well known for its majestic beauty. It is also among the top eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. The Western Ghats host over 400 species and seven distinct vegetation types. 

Gopal Nishad, a fisherman in his early 40s, is frustrated that there is hardly any fish left in the Mahanadi’s basin at Pitaibandh due to the lack of water in the basin. This basin is located near Rajim-Nawapara in Chhattisgarh, the proposed site for the fourth anicut on the Mahanadi. He reminisces the good old days when he, along with his brother, used to catch plenty of fish from the Mahanadi. 

India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday forecast that the monsoon this year will be normal, with rainfall of 97 percent of the long period average (LPA) with an error of plus or minus five percent. 

If the forecast comes true, it will benefit the country’s economy, as it will be the third successive normal monsoon year. The country had recorded a rainfall of 97 percent in 2016 and 98 percent last year during the season which runs from June to September.