India - Flood project - GDS

National workshop

on

Climate Smart

disaster Risk Management

at

New Delhi

on

7th April 2010

DRR & CC in Gremeen Development Services

2

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.


3

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”


4

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


5

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


6

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


7

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.


8

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.


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Components finalization:Compulsory components:

• Cultivation of preflood Paddy;

• Safe drinking water;

• Household list;

• Mock drills (Rescue);

• Toilet on raised ground;

• Livestock vaccination;

• Awareness on health, hygiene & sanitation;

• Trained Health worker (Swasthya sakhi ).

Need based components:

• Arrangement of boats

• Preparation at household level

• Temporary shelter

• Health camps

• Safe storage of fodder

• Flood response Centre

• Veterinary health camps


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)

1. RainfallJun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar April May

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 vulnerabilityDRR & CC in Gremeen Development Services

Adaptive CapacityDRR & CC in Gremeen Development Services

Thanks


India - Flood project - GDS

Technology

drr cc

flood mitigation

phenomenon of climate

climate change dimension

flood related issues

based components

component preflood paddy

practice change