The constantly rising sea levels and increasing deforestation and environmental damage have now become a common feature across Asia. These events have precipitated the destruction of natural barriers to inundations, and these barriers are only likely to weaken over the coming years. A report analysing the flood-prone populations and resources along with changing environmental factors recently predicted that by 2100, the world’s economic output would fall by 20% as a direct result of floods. Climate economist Thomas Schinko referred to the study as “a strong signal to the international policy scene to urgently strengthen the ambitions for climate change mitigation”. Over the years, the issue of perennial flooding has mostly been ignored by the mainstream media and central authorities across Asia. However, with the frequency of such incidents now growing, slowly but steadily, the matter is being recognised as one in need of urgent attention. However, while the issue is clearly one of regional significance, the efforts have been primarily driven by highly narrow-minded domestic motives, creating unnecessary obstacles in flood management and often contributing to the widespread devastation in the affected regions.
India and Nepal’s severely lacking efforts to curtail the damages caused by floods is a clear example of the failure of such an inward-looking approach. Coordinated measures and efficient and long-lasting solutions to the inundations along the India-Nepal border is urgent. Over 6,000 rivers and their tributaries flow from Nepal into India. Over the past 12 years, the two countries have witnessed at least seven major floods in their bordering regions. However, Indian-Nepali coordination has been highly unsuccessful in efficiently coordinating efforts to deter, or even reduce, the devastation caused by floods every year.
Primarily, flood management collaboration is throttled by local and bilateral political motivations. Even before the ongoing border dispute between India and Nepal, bilateral coordination was hardly a smooth-sailing affair. During the early stages of the negotiations that established the coordinated mechanisms for flood management, India used its diplomatic upper hand to advocate a more favourable deal for itself at the expense of Nepal’s ecological security. For instance, according to the agreements of Kosi and Gandak, signed in 1954 and 1959, India controls the floodgates of the embankments. Rather than adopting an approach which would be beneficial for both Nepal and India, often Indian authorities have misused the terms of the agreement and refused to open the gates on time to delay the onset of the floods on the Indian side of the embankments. This has allegedly caused widespread destruction of settlements in the bordering areas in Nepal. At the same time, the benefits of the dam, such as its use for irrigation and generation of hydropower, have not been enjoyed by Nepali settlements in the region, either.
Moreover, the political leaders from both countries often play a blame game to exonerate themselves of any responsibility for the devastation that the floods caused, thereby capitalising on lack of accountability surrounding flood management in the region. Over the years, India has consistently been blamed for taking unilateral decisions to construct dams and other structures, which are allegedly responsible for worsening the flooding situation in Nepal. On the other hand, India has criticised Nepal for making hollow promises of improving infrastructure and failing to follow through with their commitments. This year, too, political leaders of both countries engaged in a similar war of words. In July, Nepal’s Home Minister blamed the constructions of ten embankments by India in Bihar for restricting the flow of water and, therefore, causing floods across thousands of hectares in Nepal. In response, Bihar’s Water Resources Minister cited Nepali authorities’ decision to halt the erection of barriers and other repair work as the cause for the widespread devastation caused by inundations in the bordering districts of Bihar.
In addition, Indian-Nepali coordination on the issue has adopted a top-down approach, wherein policies and measures are formulated at the central level and then trickle down to local levels after wading through multiple layers of administrative hurdles. Hence, any lack of cooperation at the central level and diplomatic struggles delay, and sometimes permanently halt, any flood-management efforts at the community level. For instance, local and central representatives of both Nepal and India reported that the “confusion” surrounding the maintenance and repair work of the Gandak Barrage was resolved. However, residents said that the impact of this “resolution” was not materialised in time, and that the failure to complete the construction work worsened the damage caused by the floods. As pre and post-flood management is highly time-sensitive, such delays nullify overall efforts made by central and local authorities to prevent or reduce damages caused by inundations.
Moreover, the top-down approach also limits the operations of ground-level bodies. Currently, the flood management coordination at the local level is supervised by the Nepal-India Joint Committee on Inundations and Flood Management (JCIFM), which convenes every November to collaborate flood management issues. The JCIFM, however, has limited power. Therefore, it is often restricted from taking effective measures on the issues without attaining approval from central authorities. For example, in May 2020, the committee met to resolve the dispute surrounding “ongoing construction of roads and other structures” along the bordering districts, but these discussions failed, as the statement by the JCIFM said that the matter was only to be resolved through “diplomatic channels”. Further, these “diplomatic” conversations never occurred due to the strained relations between the two countries. However, in July, after witnessing unexpected damages due to floods this year, Nepal’s Water Minister, Barshaman Pun, urged his department to prepare for negotiations with India. By then, the inundations had already caused over a hundred deaths, along with widespread displacement in both Nepal and India.
Hence, India and Nepal’s flood-management efforts require a more regionally coordinated approach, ideally in collaboration with other neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and China. Currently, the multilateral body that deals with such issues is the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). One of the motives of the body is “to establish a regional system to develop and implement regional programmes and projects for early warning”. However, flood management falls extremely low on SAARC’s list of priorities. Hence, with the increasing threat to economic and social interests of the countries in the region, there is a need to establish a specialised regional body that deals with inundations and focuses on involving diverse stakeholders in the decision-making process. Further, such a body would also promote uniform data sharing and attack information disorder, which is highly rampant in the region. As of today, there has been no conversation about such a multilateral or regional body to specifically deal with flood management.
The setting up of such a body may, however, seem highly unlikely, specifically due to the various regional disputes that taint the region. Nevertheless, when it comes to natural disaster management, countries have, on several occasions, overlooked political differences to formulate a collaborated response. For example, India and Pakistan have, since 1991, met several times every year to counter the locust threat in their bordering districts. These conversations were conducted even through terrorist attacks, such as 26/11, and violence caused by border disputes in Kashmir. With growing disturbances and breaking friendships in the region, will the increasing threat caused by inundations lead to similar regional cooperation that can withstand political influences, or will the fragmented political motivations obstruct any successful collaboration on flood management efforts?
Why Asia’s Approach Towards Flood Management Needs a Major Revamp
Floods in India and Nepal have displaced over 4 million this year alone.
August 6, 2020
SOURCE: THE CHRONICLE