Assam, Bihar flood lesson to benefit Pak, Afghanistan

Flood-prone communities in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal will soon benefit from a Community-based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS), which was experimented in Assam and Bihar between 2010 and 2016.

Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has recently started implementing the telemetry-based system for those living close to Gilgit river in Pakistan’s Punnial Valley, Peshghor and Panjshir rivers in Afghanistan and Khando river in Nepal.

The project is aimed at reducing the impact of floods in downstream areas as it did for people living near the Jiadhol andSingora rivers in eastern Assam’s flood-prone Dhemaji and Lakhimpur districts and for Bihar’s Bhitthamore river.

The low-cost system uses a flood sensor attached to a transmitter to detect rising water levels. When the water reaches a critical level, a wireless signal is transmitted to the receiver. The flood warning is then disseminated via a mobile phone to agencies concerned and vulnerable communities downstream.

“We have already identified the vulnerable river tributaries and the communities at risk, the locations to install the CBFEWS instrument, training and others. We have recently installed the instruments in five tributaries in Pakistan and three in Afghanistan and the partners are monitoring the water level change in the tributaries,” Neera Shrestha Pradhan, ICIMOD’s senior water and adaptation specialist told DH.

“The tributaries have been selected based on their vulnerability to flood disasters that wreck havoc very often. The Hindu Kush region of the Himalayas comprising eight countries is one of the serious disaster-prone regions and the riparian communities suffer the most,” she said.

Pradhan said that after the pilot project in Assam, the system was upgraded from wireless system to the telemetry system in 2016 and implemented along the Ratu river in Barbidas, Nepal.

“Over 20,000 people living close to Jiadholand Singora rivers were benefited by the system between 2010 and 2016. In the 2013 flood season, the system successfully informed the community members in Dihiri of impending floods, helping them save assets, including cattle and pigs, worth approximately $3,300. Not only that, but it also enhanced the sense of brotherhood among people living on the upstream and downstream,” said Partha Jyoti Das, head of water, climate and hazard division of Aaranyak, an NGO here.

Aaranyak implemented the system in Assam as ICIMOD's partner.

The project’s impact in the field was acknowledged by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and was awarded the Momentum for Change 2014 Lighthouse Activity Award in the ICT category.