Floods, the most disastrous and threatening natural disaster caused every year due to heavy rainfall and creates widespread loss to human lives and also leads to cattle die, homes are devastated, health hazards , lots of agricultural crops are destroyed, communication links are disturbed, railways , roads, everything is damaged. This year flood has hit Andhra Pradesh and has destroyed the state totally, people are in extreme miserable condition and many people have lost their lives. Floods are nothing other than the high stream flow of water which overlaps natural or artificial banks of a river or a stream.

Floods basically depend on climate, the nature of the streams, the amount of snow melted and the most important factor is the amount of rainfall in a year. Today after Bangladesh India is the second most flood effected nation in the world. Flood disasters in India are not new as every year one or the other state is effected and destroyed by them. In present scenario the increasing population and the high rate of development in making societies and cutting of trees on the banks and increasing global warming. Because of the global warming, the temperature of this year is higher than the temperature of many years ago. The ice caps melt in spring, many water go into the sea. The water raises the sea level, and makes the river level raise. When river level rises, it causes flooding.

People in many parts of the country wait for the arrival of monsoon, but this year, the rains in Assam have been a bad news, causing havoc in different parts of the State. About 40 villages with a population of 41,000 have been affected by the current flood. Everyone knows Majuli is a river island and is prone to flood. As per relief manual, 4 Gaon Panchayat were completely affected and some were partially affected.

Last year river Kosi in Bihar had destroyed the state because of flood. And this year Andra pradesh has been targeted by floods. Floods are not new to India and the Indian government, as every year floods destroy many states, many fields, and make good damage to the country. One thing which really bother me is still our government is unable to make proper and appropriate preventions form the floods. Does government really take notice of the proper use of the funds relived for the floods effected region?

Every time when ever a state face a natural calamity a good amount of funds are released for the victims of the calamities. But it really feels sad to know that only 10 % of the funds are received by the sufferers and the other 90% is distributed among the persons involved in the process of releasing fund. The budget which is passed is in a big amount of 4000-5000 crore rupees against the floods.

If proper precautions would have been taken earlier the coming of flood would have been avoided. Only one question comes in my mind is that ‘is government sleeping before the disaster actually knock the door of the country, why are we unable to make proper arrangements to defend the country from the coming and known calamities’. Flooding often occurs in lowland. This is because rivers flow more slowly in low-lying area. If the water volume increases suddenly, floods occur.

We ourselves are very much responsible for the arrival of floods. Large areas of forests near the rivers have been cleared. The lands use to make room for settlement, roads and farmland. Less vegetation protect the soil, the soil is quickly lost to rivers and sea. This raises the river bed, so the river overflows its banks easily. People want more wood to build house. So, they cut many trees. The deforestation leads to flooding as now we don’t have trees to soak up water, so more water flows into the rivers. No trees to build the soil together, so soil erosion takes place. Large amounts of soil are washed by rain into the rivers. Because of silting, riverbed shallower. The water volume increases, the river cannot hold all the water and overflows its banks.

Today the desires of more food and money make them selfish and, they graze too many animals on the land and the pasture is eaten away quickly. Less vegetation cover, soil washed into the rivers easily.

Many a times the poor water management also emerges as an invitation for floods. When the dams are poorly constructed or not maintained properly, they easily collapse in heavy rainfall which also results in flooding.

If the government starts taking notice of even the discussed facts we will surely be able to prevent some regions from flooding. Passing good and heavy amount of money for the funds is not the only responsibility of the government because the money will not bring back life to the people dead in calamities, in fact the government should take sharp notice on the factors which welcome the calamities.