Centre to set up 100 more flood forecasting stations

The Central Water Commission (CWC) has said that it will set up 100 more flood forecasting stations across the country.

In a statement, the CWC said that 40 flood forecasting stations would come up in the states of Arunachal Pradesh (3), Himachal Pradesh (1), Kerala (2), Rajasthan (12), Sikkim (8) and Tamil Nadu (14) during the current five-year plan.

In addition to this, 60 more flood forecasting stations will be set up in other states that already have flood forecasting stations to cover their uncovered areas.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) has, inter-alia, been entrusted with flood forecasting activities in India.

For this purpose, a network of 878 stations on major rivers and their tributaries has been set up.

Presently, flood forecasts are issued for 176 stations (148 level forecast and 28 inflow forecast) using hydrological data from its own network and Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) received from Flood Metrological Organization (FMO) of India Metrological Department (IMD).

The existing flood forecasting network of CWC covers 19 states/UTs/NCT, 10 major river basins and 72 sub-basins.

So far, 445 stations have been modernised with automatic data collection and transmission systems.

Mathematical models on the rivers Jhelum, Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Yamuna, Chambal, Baitarani, Vamsadhara, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi, Tapi, Godavari and Krishna have been developed. The forecast is disseminated using the email, SMS and website facilities.

The modernisation of network includes installation of automatic sensor based data collection and satellite based data transmission systems for near real time flood forecasting and development of medium range hydrologic and hydraulic models with a warning time of up to 72 hours using one dimensional mathematical modelling tools, for effective flood forecasting.

The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation had launched new flood forecasting website e-Surface Water Information System ("e-SWIS") during the flood season of 2014, which has facilitated timely forecast dissemination through email/SMS.