Officials launch online flood reporting system in Assam

Guwahati, May 08: An online flood reporting and information management system was launched on Saturday in Assam, which faces severe deluge every year, an official said. The online system developed jointly by Assam State Disaster Management Agency and UNICEF will replace the existing manual flood control mechanism.

Launching the digital system, Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua said managing floods is a critical administrative function as it involves multiple departments and stakeholders. The current practice of flood reporting passes through a time-consuming manual verification and quality control system, he said.

The new system for online flood reporting on a daily basis will be operational from May 15. The administration is very conversant in dealing with flood, relief and recovery efforts, which depend on situational awareness and availability of data, the chief secretary said.

Daily flood reporting between May 15 and October 15 has been made mandatory in Assam. Driven by web-cum-mobile application technology, the new system will help delivery of relief and rehabilitation grants to flood-affected people, the official said. The digital initiative will facilitate tracking of damages to crops and loss of livestock and also help provide financial assistance for restoration, he said.

UNICEF India Chief, Emergency and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Tom White congratulated the Assam government for being the first state to adopt the digital reporting system that will capture critical impact indicators during floods.

"Such a system will go a long way in measuring the impact of disaster risk reduction interventions," he said. Principal Secretary Revenue and Disaster Management Department Avinash Joshi said the digital system will enable information feeding at the source, immediate alert-based verification at defined levels and automatic compilation.

ASDMA Chief Executive Officer GD Tripathi said the required training for their field staffers and officers have already been conducted.