Centre of excellence to forecast flood
2 min readPatna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated Bihar’s first Mathematical Modelling Centre as a “centre of excellence” on Saturday.
The centre, at the water resources building in Anisabad, will forecast and assess floods.
Conceptualised in the aftermath of the 2007 floods, the centre has been established with the help of the World Bank. The 2007 deluge had affected 2.5 crore people in 22 districts and the Kosi disaster of 2008 had ravaged Madhepura, Supaul, Saharsa and a few other districts.
“The Mathematical Modelling Centre will have all the data from 2018 onwards, and also data of the last 10 years, which will help assess floods before they hit,” Nitish said, adding that the centre would help officials know places where river embankments are weak, places prone to extensive destruction, and expanse of inundation among others.
“The centre will also provide information about river systems. At first the Kosi and Bagmati rivers would be assessed,” he added.
Nitish said the Ganga should also be studied. “We have data for the Ganga, 25km upstream and downstream from Bhagalpur. Assessment will be done on its basis to find how much silt deposit is happening in the river because of the Farakka barrage,” Nitish added.
“The central government has recently constituted a committee on incessant Ganga. I had a talk with Union minister Nitin Gadkari on inland waterway and told him that the flow of water will have to be improved for this. Various structures in Ganga’s upstream in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have hampered its natural flow,” Nitish said. “Bihar receives only 400 cubic metre per second (cumec) flow in the Ganga at Chausa in Buxar, where it enters Bihar, but has to give 1600 cumec at Farakka in Bengal. Lack of natural flow also leads to silt deposits. The design of Farakka barrage doesn’t allow expulsion of all silt. Analysis needs to be done on the basis of data 140km upstream from Farakka.”
A physical modelling centre is being established at Birpur in Supaul district for studying rivers and floods, he added.
Courtesy: The Telegraph
