Of the various natural disasters, floods are the most commonly ones occurring in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Almost every year floods affect some part of the state or the other. Important rivers, which create floods in the State, are the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Ramganga, the Gomti, the Sharda, the Ghaghra, the Rapti and the Gandak.

The Ganga river basin of Uttar Pradesh experiences normal rainfall in the region from 60 cm to 190 cm of which more than 80 per cent occurs during the south-west monsoon. The rainfall increases from west to east and from south to north. Similar is the pattern of floods as the problem increases from west to east and south to north.

Out of the 240.93 lakh hectares geographical area of the State, about 73.06 lakh hectares is flood prone. As per the Irrigation Department’s estimate, only 58.72 lakh can actually be protected. Up to March 2004, only 16.01 lakh hectares has been protected. The eastern districts as well as those situated in the Terai region bordering Nepal are the most affected. Due to floods, an average of 26.89 lakh hectares is affected annually, and the estimated loss to crops, houses and livestock is to the tune of Rs 432 crore annually. Apart from these, loss of human life also occurs.

The government has taken several measures to control floods:

• Construction of embankments, drainage improvements, building reservoirs detention basins and afforestation, etc
• Modification of susceptibility to flood damage through flood forecasting and disaster preparedness and improvement of river channel to increase their discharge carrying capacity by straightening, widening and deepening
• Construction of bypass and diversion channels to carry some of the excess floodwater away from the protected areas

Yet flood fury continues and so does the suffering of people in the flood prone areas.

There have been several non-governmental efforts to lessen, if not mitigate, suffering of flood affected people. GSS is also part of such efforts. It has worked on a Village Resilience Flood Prone Area Programme in Siddharthnagar district. Implemented in 25 villages of the district the programme aimed at developing a community based coping mechanism against the flood disaster.

A GSS worker during field visit to a flood prone area