Understanding the Flood Early Warning System, A Case Study of Transboundary Water Governance in the Gandak River Basin

Abstract

Flood is one the most common natural disasters on the planet, due to natural factors and as well as human factors. Climate change, tsunami, cloud bursting, poor river management, silting of the river, etc. are the causes of flooding and it impacts heavily on the lives and economies of the affected region. South Asian region during the three decades period of 1976–2005, 943 natural disasters were reported out of which one-third were caused by floods, primarily in the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra basins. People are killed annually by floods in this region. Experience shows that there are problems such as lack of information, proper dissemination system, etc. In this paper, my case study is at Gandak, which is the most devastating river in the Indo-Nepal region. Most of the master drain river originates from the Himalayas and Gandak also flows from Nepal. Gandak is a transboundary river which has to face issues like political tensions, economic development, and power of decision making have stressed the transboundary issues between India and Nepal. Over the period of time flood risk reduction concentrated on the construction of embankments and retention by reservoirs. But attempt to decrease the vulnerability has given minor importance. The early Warning System should be people-centric as mentioned in the Hyogo framework. Flood Early Warning System has evolved significantly but the warnings still fail to disseminate or fail to reach the communities. Being a transboundary river, it has to deal with various transboundary conflicts, such as the lack of coordination seen between India and Nepal while disseminating the information. In this paper, it gives information about how information is shared between Indo-Nepal and further how this information reaches to the ground level on which there is an exploration of the interface between formal and informal early warning systems and identified various strategies for improving the systems which are existed by reviewing the policy document signed between India and Nepal.