Parl panel bats for upgrading flood forecasting infrastructure

Noting that there is lack of coordination between local administration and the Central Water Commission (CWC), a parliamentary panel has "strongly" recommended for upgrading the present flood forecasting infrastructure.
The report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources, which was tabled in Parliament recently, said the Committee is amazed to note that though CWC faces no bottlenecks in providing forecast to the local administration as well as uploading on CWC website, still there is "lack of coordination between the local administration and CWC in the matter flood forecasting".
"The Committee, therefore, strongly recommend the ministry to take steps so that the present flood forecasting infrastructure of CWC is upgraded effectively to disseminate the news of impending floods well in time so as to avert havoc caused by floods," the report said.

Further, the Standing Committee also felt that timely warnings do not reach people, while adding that there has been no decline in the number of casualties occurring due to sudden onset of floods.
"The Ministry in its reply has admitted that in areas which do not experience frequent floods or where the flood generation time is very less, the flood forecasting network of CWC is not considered and therefore, no warnings are formulated by CWC in event of unprecedented floods in such areas," the report stated.
The Committee observed that the present flood forecasting infrastructure needs to be modernised and broadened to the entire country such that tangible improvements are visible even in non-flood prone states.

This apart, the report said that around 219 stations of existing flood forecast networks are yet to be modernised by the Government. The Committee recommended that all stations should be modernised with telemetry system.