Countries in Asia and the Pacific face a heightened risk of flooding as disasters increase worldwide due to climate change. Yet these countries often lack the infrastructure necessary to prepare for and
On Thursday evening Thimphu residents went home safe in the belief that the flash flood coming down from the Tango Cheri area was nothing to worry about. But that night several families residing in Changzamtog area could not sleep at all. With heavy rain all night, drain water flooded several homes and kept the residents awake right through the night. Karma, a tenant of a traditional house, which belongs to Ap Gomchen, said that drain water, which flows above their house gushed inside through the kitchen window.
Situated at the foot of the hills that rise up to Zhemgang dzongkhag, Serzhong village is a fertile stretch of flat land perfectly suited for paddy cultivation. But only seven of the 63 households in this village, eight kilometres from Gelephu town, cultivate paddy. This is because monsoon torrents keep washing away irrigation channels and deposit sand and gravel into the fields making cultivation impossible. And so about 100 acres of paddy land in the village have become fallow land filled with shrubs.
The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture on Sunday blamed inefficiency of Irrigation Department officials for persistent water shortage in the province even after enormous increase in water level in the River Indus. The chamber's president Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah said at the chamber's weekly meeting that although the river was flowing to its full capacity the water was not being released into the channels and they were running dry. The meeting blamed the officials' inefficiency for nagging water shortage problem and said the growers were crying hoarse for water but they received nothing.
Spate in Nullah Deg inundated 15 villages of Pasrur tehsil on Sunday, damaging standing crops and forcing locals to shift to safer places. The flood and rainwater spilled out from the banks of nullah after heavy rains in catchment areas of the stream on Saturday night, inundating Hunjali, Jhaatokey, Mehtabpur, Chahoor Kalan, Nawaadey, Jussiwala and some other villages. District Coordination Officer (DCO) Captain Atta Muhammad Khan (retired) said the situation was under control and no loss of life or property was reported from the area as yet.
Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) has called for release of water to the channels, maintaining that due to shortage of water the standing crops are facing destruction. In a meeting, presided over by SCA President Syed Qamar-uz-Zaman Shah here on Sunday, the Chamber called for punitive action against those persons of irrigation department who are allegedly involved in corruption and are using negative tactics aimed at creating problems for the growers.
ANSHUMAN PHADIKAR An East Midnapore school still under water. Picture by Jahangir Badsa Tamluk, July 20: More than a month after the floods in East Midnapore, some two lakh people are homeless and over 350 schools shut because they are serving as relief camps. "Hundreds of villages are still under water,' said district relief officer Srikrishna Maity. Unless the water recedes, the government won't be able to assess the damage and fix compensation. If the water has receded in some villages, the houses are unfit to live in.
BY MANOJ ANAND GUWAHATI, July 18: The Assam government has urged the Union power ministry to include local scientists from the states while carrying out studies on the environmental impact of mega power-generating dam projects in the northeastern states. Speaking in the state Assembly on Friday, state power minister Pradyut Bordoloi said that there were genuine apprehensions in some districts about potential disasters posed by the large dams in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, especially in view of last month's events in Lakhimpur district.
North East India Committee on Relief and Development (NEICORD), an organisation working for relief and development in the north eastern region, recently inaugurated a raised flood shelter on the July 10 constructed for the community of Daokabaha village in Chirang district. NEICORD has been working in this district for the last two and half years focusing on disaster risk reduction at the grass root level.
Unprecedented hot weather in temperate climate the United States has taken the people unawares and made life difficult. It is the effect of climate change Americans are experiencing. From spell of scorching heat to tornadoes to heavy thundershowers as well as flood and draught have been occurring in many parts of the vast country.
Sonowal sanctions Rs 2 lakh for anti-erosion measures From our Staff Correspondent DIBRUGARH,July 17: More than 20 villages under Larua Mouza in Dibrugarh District faces extinction due to unabated flood and erosion of Buridihing river. Dibrugarh MP Sarbananda Sonowal today visited the Pani Miri Village under Larua Mouza and assessed the situation arising out of flash flood.
