Kashmir remains under constant flood threat since the 2014 floods that drowned major parts of the Kashmir Valley, including the capital city of Srinagar. In April this year, as the region received incessant rainfall for a few days, panic spread in the Valley forcing the authorities to come out and say there was no alarming flood-like situation.
However, the latest report named ‘Kashmir Floods 2014—Recovery to Resilience,’ released by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs, has called for corrective measures to prevent disasters like the 2014 floods. The report says unplanned development all across Kashmir could have serious consequences.
The September 2014 floods in Jammu and Kashmir resulted in the death of 300 people. Around two million families were impacted—1.4 million people lost their household assets and livelihoods, 67,000 houses were fully damaged and over 66,000 were partially damaged.
The floods severely affected the healthcare system, with 102 institutions of the Directorate of Health Services in Kashmir being impacted. Four out of the five major hospitals in Srinagar had to be shut down due to the floods. The Government Medical College Srinagar remained submerged in floodwaters for nearly three weeks. Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, one of the largest premier hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir, was non-functional for over two weeks as the floodwater rendered hospital beds, medical and diagnostic equipment, and hospital transport useless.
The education sector suffered badly as out of 11,526 primary and middle-school buildings, 1,986 collapsed, and 2,685 were partially damaged. Even after the floods, the schools remained affected for up to three months. The housing sector of the Valley alone suffered losses of over Rs 30,000 crore.
Now the new report says there is a need for the installation of flood forecasting and early warning systems at appropriate locations, along with regular monitoring. There are three hydrological stations in Jammu and Kashmir—Sangam, Ram Munshi Bagh and Safpora—installed on the Jhelum River, which runs through the Valley, by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department. In September 2014, these stations detected a rise in water levels from 5.3 meters on September 3, 2014, to 10.13 meters on September 4, 2014.
At that time, the local authorities could not interpret the alarming signals of the rising water levels as these stations were only used to monitor the flow of water from India to Pakistan and were not designated as flood forecasting stations. “If these stations had provided flood forecasts to the state authorities, they could have prepared for flood recovery by initiating early evacuation from low-lying areas, deploying special teams, and arranging relief supplies,” the report says.
