Integrated river basin management advocated for Arunachal

Flood and erosion problems in the river catchments of Assam and Arunachal need to be considered in the disaster risk mitigation framework at catchment level and treated as part of a larger integrated river basin management plan, Das said. 

“Assam and Arunachal should start collaborative initiatives to study the water induced hazards from the basin management perspectives, prepare basin level plans and start concrete and appropriate actions and interventions for basin level management of rivers through an inter-state cooperation mechanism as well as integrated mitigation of flood and erosion problem,” he added.

“Erosion in Arunachal creates flood problem for Assam because of sediment deposition on Brahmaputra river bed,” L Angu, chief engineer of Arunachal's Water Resource Department (WRD), said.

He suggested undertaking flood plain zoning and a paradigm shift in flood management between both the states. 

“The need of the hour is for an integrated river basin management approach which is environmentally conducive with appropriate institutional mechanism properly fused with the traditional culture of the region,” Angu pointed out.