No more flood deaths

Floods have been known to occur since the prehistoric times. Out of all the natural disasters, the affected population is greatest for flood, amounting to 47.5% of the total for all the disasters taken together. Over 1900 to 2019, the number of flood occurrences show an increasing trend at a global scale. As a consequence, flood-affected population and flood damages show an increasing trend as well. However, globally, flood-related deaths show a decreasing tendency over the same period. Data from India are available over the period 1953 to 2017. Over this period, flood deaths in India show a rising trend, in contrast to the falling global trend over the same period. Considering an estimate of the value of statistical life as Rs. 4.469 crores (which is only one-sixteenth the value considered in the US), the cost of life loss due to floods in India over the period 1953 to 2017 is about Rs 4,80,574 crore. The cost of life loss over 2017 alone amounts to Rs 9220 crores. As a part of building flood resilience, flood deaths should be stopped with immediate effect with concerted efforts that cuts across boundaries of Departments and States. While strict imposition of floodplain regulatory zoning and associated displacement may provide the long term solution, advanced flood warning systems with improved lead time driven by reliable quantitative precipitation forecast and hydrodynamic modelling may hold the key to mitigation of losses. As a rising nation aspiring for global leadership, actions to stop flood deaths is not an option but a necessity.