India - Flood project - GDS

DRR & CC in Gremeen Development Services

National workshop
on
Climate Smart
disaster Risk Management
at
New Delhi
on
7th April 2010


The Flood scenario in Eastern Uttar
Pradesh:
• 15-18 districts of East UP get affected by floods almost every
year.
• Floods are caused due to release of water from Nepal, excess
rain in Tarai region.
• The terrain has gentle slope form north-west towards south-
east.
• The average height of the north-west part is about 95.5 meter
ASL while the south-east part is about 85 meter ASL.
• Due to its proximity to the Himalayas, rainfall in the area is
much higher than other parts.

2


The Project intervention (Design of DRR):
• Project was not pre-designed, it has evolved with finding
solutions and trials with community.
• The project approach has been ‘community based disaster
risk management’.
• The focus has been on-
– To enable & capacitate the community;
– To evolve community based coping mechanism;
GDS believes in the principle that “sufferer is the first
responder”

3


Situation/Problem Analysis:
The poor and the women are the most vulnerable- the
extent of vulnerability as well as coping capacity directly
proportional to the socio-economic and gender status of
the people.
 Agriculture is the main source of livelihood;
 Majority of farmers are small and marginal.
 Flood destroys not only the Kharif (monsoon season)
crop but also delays the next Rabi (winter season)
crop due to water locking and water logging.
 People’s interest and investment in agriculture
declining.
 Seasonal male migration is rampant
4


Situation/Problem Analysis:
 During floods gender discrimination is clearly
visible
 Women particularly the elderly eat and drink less
to avoid going to toilet
 Drinking water sources get submerged;
 Conditions highly favourable for outbreak of
epidemics;
 People have accepted floods as destiny and
resigned to their fate;
 Dependency on relief assistance

5


The Model Finalization process:
• Initiated with problem identification, analysis and
prioritization.
• Micro planning process initiated in villages with
community participation.
• Interventions designed for flood mitigation were
based on specific problems identified during micro
planning process.
• Continuous process of participatory reviewing and
deriving learning carried out- leading to timely
refinement/fine-tuning in the implementation design

6


GDS’s Disaster (Flood) Risk
Reduction Management Model:
SALIENT FEATURES-
• Safeguarding life and livelihoods due to floods;
• To bring about a change in the mind set- that ‘floods are
destiny’, leading to proactive preparedness by the suffering
community
• Community owned and managed Preparedness and Response
systems;
• Advocacy for Policy and Practice change on flood related
issues.

7


GDS’s Disaster (Flood) Risk
Reduction Management Model :
Formation of Village Level Disaster
Management Groups (DMGs);
Village Flood Preparedness Plan (Micro-plan);
Institutional capacity building of DMGs;
Capacity building of sector specific volunteers;
Categorization of compulsory and need based
components.

8


Components finalization:
Compulsory components: Need based components:
• Cultivation of pre- flood • Arrangement of boats
Paddy; • Preparation at household
• Safe drinking water; level
• Household list; • Temporary shelter
• Mock drills (Rescue); • Health camps
• Toilet on raised ground; • Safe storage of fodder
• Livestock vaccination; • Flood response Centre
• Awareness on health, • Veterinary health camps
hygiene & sanitation;
• Trained Health worker
(Swasthya sakhi ).
9

Agriculture Intervention:

 Agriculture is the only source of livelihood.
 Paddy is the principal crop grown in 85% +in the area in kharif season.
 Most of the varieties grown take 120-135 days to mature.
 Crop has to face either flood or drought.
Strategy was to bring change in cropping time & crop variety:
 Identified a variety NDR-97;
 Matures in 90 days ;
 Can tolerate hot summer;
 Paddy crops harvested in August.
Year No. of farmers Coverage (acre)
2002 26 (8 villages) 10
2003 326 (32 villages) 144
2004 8265 2005
2005 25000 6300
2006 35000(approx) --------
2007 20 districts (UP & Bihar)


Integration of Climate Change with DRM
• Monsoons in the year 2007 broke all norms and trends-
heavy rains in early July caused massive floods almost six
weeks before the ‘normal’ time for floods
• While most components of the DRM model stood to the
test, the agriculture safeguarding component (pre-flood
paddy) was knocked completely off the course!
• It forced us to give serious consideration to the
phenomenon of ‘Climate Change’ and to look out for
ways to make our DRM and livelihoods interventions
‘climate change smart’


Integration of Climate Change with DRM
• Towards integrating the ‘climate change’
dimension, we have undertaken a study to
comprehend the issues and nuances related
to climate change
• The focus has been on the effects of climate
change on livelihoods (especially, agriculture)


Study on Climate Change Phenomenon

• The study has looked into the following aspects
– Changes in climatic pattern
– Impact on life and livelihoods
– Coping Strategies
– Demands
• The method comprises of
– FGDs and key informant interviews with community to
understand their perspective on the issue
– Taking inputs from scientists and subject matter experts


Changes in climate trends
1. Rainfall:

 Late arrival and early end

 Change in intensity and timing- becoming
increasingly erratic

 Decline in winter rains


Rainfall Variations Maharajganj District
(mm)
Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar April May
1. Rainfall

2004
19 -4 -61 -63 42 -100 -100 124 -100 -100 178 119
2005
-52 -23 -28 -57 3 -100 -100 133 -58 -37 -29
2006
67 -31 -58 -33 -96 -100 -100 -100 -100 -60 21 148
2007
-74 16 -16 -76 -100 451 -67 215 -2
2008
-24 -35 -69 -83 -71 -100
2009
-71 -53 -52 -92 -71 -100 -55
Source: IMD, Pune


2. Seasons
• Change in duration of the seasons

• Summer are very hot and dry

• Winter are concentrated and short

• Fogs lasts throughout the day


3. Wind

• Weak Pachuva and strong Purva

• Absence of “loo”


4. Floods
• Change in the period of arrival

• Persistent water-logging

• Increase in intensity

• Irregular pattern


Other changes
Water table-
Deep fall in water levels reported in some
pockets
Flora & Fauna-
Loss of plants like ghuma, nagfani, bhatkoi
and animals like frogs and birds like eagles,
vultures, sparrows, etc.
Rise in insects like pathavar, pathnag and
worms


Impact
1. Agriculture:
• Damage to crops
• Disturbance in crop-cycle
• Need for multiple-irrigation, even during kharif
• Rise in insect/pest infestation
• Rise in weeds like khod jawaya, gilli danda and
ban mutter
• Fall in size of grains


Impact
2. Animal Husbandry-
• Fall in grazing land and water

• Impact of heat and poor fodder

• Accumulation of chemicals

• Mechanization of agriculture causing loss of fodder

• Fall in milk production


Impact on Economy
• Increase in cost of agriculture inputs; decline
in production and productivity

• Decline in livestock based livelihoods

• Large scale migration


Emerging coping strategies
• Use of high yielding varieties
• Balanced use of fertilizers and pesticides
• Creation co-operatives with the help of NGOs
• Nursery cropping
• Change in cropping pattern and sowing time
• Growing bamboo terraces
• Emphasis on jayad cropping
• Preference to mixed cropping


Emerging demands
• Better varieties
– short-duration
– heat and water tolerant
– high yielding
• More facilities to undertake jayad cropping
• Knowledge of better practices in cropping
• Micro-insurance for crop damage
• Improved flood control programmes
• Education on climate-change


Climate Change vulnerability


Adaptive Capacity


Thanks

India - Flood project - GDS

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