Researchers suggest measures to tackle floods in State

PANJIM, FEB 28
The team of researchers who studied the flood possibility for Goa has recommended various measures including mapping of areas vulnerable for landslides in the state.
The committee headed by National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) Director Dr Satish Shetye submitted its report on February 18 to the state government keeping in focus the preparedness to avoid further calamities due to floods in the state.
The committee was formed soon after state witnessed massive floods on October 2, 2009 at Canacona taluka, on state’s southernmost border. The taluka registered 271 mm of rain between approximately 9.30 AM and 4.30 PM on the fateful day.
In broad recommendations, the committee has said that the areas vulnerable to mudslides should be mapped and site-specific disaster management plan to face them should be in place at each location with high vulnerability.
“Areas with high vulnerability to flooding due to an intense precipitation event should be identified and a disaster management plan should be evolved at locations that are particularly vulnerable,” it has said.
The committee has also said that a mechanism for keeping a careful watch should be in place whenever a situation arises with high potential for an intense precipitation event in a vulnerable area.
“The Meteorological Centre of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Panjim should form the nerve centre of such a watch,” the report said.
The researchers from NIO through their report have said that the IMD infrastructure in the state needs to be strengthened to give forewarning of such incidence. The non functional IMD infrastructure came into limelight after Canacona taluka was hit by a flood followed by Phyan cyclone that almost missed the Goa coast.
“The State of Goa should make IMD’s ‘Cyclone Warning Dissemination System (CWDS)’, which is no operational since years now, need to be functional in the state,” the report suggest.
“An examination of the pattern of rainfall during the flood event suggests that the existing network of automatic weather stations (AWSs) needs to be augmented,” it further recommends. Sites vulnerable to flooding and damage were identified and some were selected as sites for locating AWSs.
The committee has suggested that there should be a Doppler radar in place to look far, up to a range of 400 km from the base, to forewarn the watch keepers of the approach of any convective system.
However, the idea of installing Doppler radar for state might take yet another year now as the department is yet to go ahead with the proposal for Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) radar for Goa.
It’s been now almost two years since IMD is in process of installing radar in the state. Earlier, last year IMD received a major blow when security reasons scuttled their plan to install China made radar.
Meanwhile, IMD Goa in-charge K V Singh has said that the department is in process of replacing its old CWDS by a Digital Cyclone Warning Dissemination System (DCWDS), which will be installed in the state soon.
DCWDS service is first of its kind in the State where the receivers will be kept under standby mode and will get automatically activated on receipt of the weather warnings messages. The system will be connected to cyclone warning centers at Mumbai and Chennai.
“It will be a verbal communication which can be heard and noted down by the staff,” Singh said adding that since it requires a person who should be next to it round the clock, it was installed in the police control room.
Singh said that this is a broadcast service, where the cyclone warning will be given verbally in the local language along with English and Hindi.