Author(s)

N. Sharma

Abstract

As we know, any disaster whether it is natural or manmade, creates serious disruption in the normal life of urban citizens causing widespread loss of properties and human lives along with the destruction of the environment. Out of all types of disasters, the water related disasters i.e. floods, are most common in the north eastern part of India, due to the occurrence of heavy rainfall resulting from extremely dynamic monsoon regimes, the unique physiographic settings, cyclones and the presence of numerous streams, rivers and water bodies. Since the population patterns in urban areas are fast changing and due to the increase in developmental activities, open spaces are fast diminishing, the misery of the people caused by artificial flood related disasters have increased manifold. Flooding in urban areas is mainly the result of poor drainage and inefficient management of land and water. Shortage of water storage areas and difficulties in transporting all the precipitation as surface water normally leads to flooding in most of the urban towns and cities.

Therefore, a proper response system is necessary to mitigate the impact of the flood disaster through preparedness, to create awareness among the people about hazard occurrence and its management through relief and rehabilitation and to draw up some short and long term plans to deal with affected people in vulnerable areas.

This paper will present a case study on how effectively the response systems are capable of mitigating the misery of the affected citizens of one of the premier cities of north east India in particular and what more is required to be done to make the city free from artificial flood hazards.

Keywords

disaster, environment, rainfall, cyclones, streams, water bodies, misery, mitigate, hazard, relief and rehabilitation, manifold