Chennai: With heavy rainfall events occurring all over the country during southwest monsoon causing floods and landslide, M.Rajeevan, union secretary for the ministry of earth sciences, said, “The northeast monsoon will be favourable one and we can also expect a lot of heavy rainfall events during the monsoon.”
While speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said, “We should be fully prepared for meeting these extreme weather events.”
Northeast monsoon is the main rainy season for Tamil Nadu. “Although the seasonal rainfall is down by 8 per cent this year, we had plenty of heavy rainfall events during the southwest monsoon,” he said adding that it is going to increase every year due to the climate change.
“Indian Meteorological Department's prediction report for northeast monsoon is ready and will be released in the first week of October,” he added.
After facing the devastating floods during 2015, various institutions have jointly come up with the Chennai Flood Early Warning System (CFLOWS).
“The warning system would be tested on an experimental basis during the northeast monsoon,” Rajeevan said.
CFLOWS, a comprehensive system meant to predict floods, has been developed jointly by the earth sciences ministry's National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), IITs of Mumbai and Madras, and Institute of Remote Sensing-Anna University.
Speaking about takeaways from the Kerala floods, he said, “We have learnt a lot of things. There is a need for good water management system, especially the flood warning system.”
Stressing the need for better dam management based on good scientific inputs, he pointed out that older ways may not be a good solution to climate change and heavy rainfall events.
“The authorities should know how much water going into the dam and need to plan the release of the water accordingly, instead of waiting for it to reach a certain level to avoid the flooding,” he said.
He came to the city publicise 4th India International Science Festival scheduled to be held from October 5 to 8 in Lucknow.
