Floods have swamped Assam again. Just like last year. And the years before that.
More than half of the state’s population has already been hit. At least 23 people have died, and thousands have been displaced already – as of Saturday evening, almost 17,000 people have been lodged in the 188 relief camps across the state. These are only official statistics. The actual number of affected people is likely to be much higher.
The floods arrive in Assam each year like clockwork. Widespread damage and displacement follows. All of this is marked by a sense of helplessness on part of the state machinery. “Whenever we take one step forward towards development, floods and erosion push us two steps backwards,” Assam’s chief secretary VK Pipersenia told The Indian Express last year, hinting at the government’s powerlessness against the fury of the Brahmaputra.
So, is Assam’s fight against the floods that ravage its plains every year akin to battling nature’s brute force against whom even the most cutting edge research and science often fall short?
A river that cannot be tamed
There is a consensus that the Brahmaputra is indeed a difficult river to tame. It is arguably the most heavily sediment-charged river of its size in the world. Add to that, the peculiar topography of the region: Assam’s floodplains are surrounded by…
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