PANAJI:  With the state of Goa, especially the southern taluka of Canacona, suffering from flood, which resulted due to unseasonal rains, earlier this year, the government has developed flood control measures, including steps in the direction of anti-sea erosion and improvement of drainage system.

The central component of Bharat Nirman programme in the irrigation sector will also be used for the purpose. Some of the funding for the said measures will be coming from the Eleventh Five-Year Plan.
Goa receives an annual rainfall of about 3,500 mm during the four months’ period from June to September, with the Mandovi and the Zuari being the two main rivers flowing in the state. There are altogether nine river basins in the Goa; all of them collectively having a basin area of 3,702 sq km.
The river basins in Goa have geologically been divided into four distinct sub-regions, broadly going from west to east, namely coastal plains on the west, vast plains adjoining the coastal plains, low hills and tablelands and high Western Ghats, with possibility of floods arising out of silt gathered in the rivers and failure of the drainage system. Under the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, an amount of Rs 6,876 lakh has been proposed under flood control, anti-sea erosion and drainage to construct protective embankment of length of 90 km and to protect an area of 25 Ha.
“As regards flood control, plain land in the state is restricted to a few kilometers from the coastal line and rivers flowing through the plain lands have very flat slopes at the estuarine reaches, which act as backwaters of the sea and the tidal effect is felt right up to the foothills of the Western Ghats,” informed a high ranking government official, adding that the effect of floods becomes more apparent when the heavy precipitation coincides with the high tide of the sea.
“Mining activity has also aggravated the flooding problems on account of indiscriminate cutting down of forests in the mining areas leading to uncontrolled erosion and excessive silting of the natural water courses,” he observed, stating that though the extent of flooding is small, area wise it forms a substantial portion of the available plain land in the state.
The Eleventh  Five-Year Plan also has an amount of Rs 2,570 lakh proposed to construct protective embankment of length 32.66 km and to protect an area of 25 Ha.
Speaking about the anti-sea erosion, the coastal line of Goa is subject to erosion particularly during the south-west monsoon period, informed the official, pointing out that in order to reduce and prevent the sea wave energy from reaching erodible land along the seashore, construction of structures such as protection walls, revetments, dykes etc are being taken up.
In the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, an amount of Rs 2,650 lakh has been proposed to construct protective measures for a length of 6.20 km.
“Finally, improving the drainage system by removing congestion through de-silting, river training, etc including the drainage systems in urbanised areas to protect the same from getting flooded due to congestion, is another important flood preventing measure,” the official stated.
In the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, an amount of Rs 1,656 lakh has also been proposed to protect 51.19 km of drainage line.
The flood control efforts also include de-silting of nullahs and repairing canals of Anjune irrigation project, and improving bunds to protect 20,000 hectares of ‘khazan’ land.
The Bharat Nirman programme for irrigation sector envisages creation of 10 million Ha that is one crore Ha additional assured irrigation during the four-year period in the country. In view of the same, a programme has been prepared to bring about 23,521 Ha of land under assured irrigation plan in the state. This includes completion of all ongoing works of the major projects like Sal and Tillari to create an irrigation potential of about 20,921 Ha under major and medium irrigation, minor irrigation, surface water and groundwater.
During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, for the initial two years period, an amount of Rs 26,789.66 lakh has been proposed to create an irrigation potential of about 5,648 Ha in the state.
“There is no separate budget provision for this programme; however, provision for expenditure to be incurred is made from the budget provision under major and medium irrigation (excluding water development), minor irrigation (excluding water resource development programme) and hill area development programme (Western Ghats).