Life was lost not because of water, but because of policies

A tragedy repeated over and over again, why is flood management an unfulfilled dream?
Haryana and many states of North India repeatedly face the horror of floods, but despite suffering losses every time, no concrete initiative is seen towards a permanent solution. Even after the floods of 2023, despite spending crores of rupees, the plans for cleaning rivers, drainage and water management remained incomplete. The result was that in 2025, once again lakhs of farmers were forced to see their hard-earned crops drowning. The question is that when the threat of floods knocks again and again, why are our policies unable to find a permanent solution?
The 2025 floods in Haryana were not an unexpected natural disaster. It is the same tragedy that the state has faced in 1978, 1988, 1995, 2010 and recently in 2023. The figures are shocking. In the last two years alone, Rs 657 crore were spent on flood management, yet hundreds of villages in twenty-one districts remained submerged, more than twenty-six lakh acres of crops of more than four and a half lakh farmers were destroyed, thousands of families became homeless and thirteen people lost their lives.
Every time the question arises that why do governments and the system repeat the same mistake again and again and why do they not learn from past experiences.
Floods are not a sudden calamity, but an anticipated and recurring danger. The rising of rivers, the changing direction of rain drains and the collapse of the drainage system are problems that are already known and whose solution has been pending for years. After the 2023 floods, the government had made big claims that for a permanent solution, the work of improving drainage, strengthening embankments and increasing the depth of drains would be on priority. But the ground reality is that most of the schemes remained incomplete and those that were started fell prey to corruption or negligence.
The farmers have been the most affected by this chaos. Kharif season crops like paddy, millet and sugarcane were completely ruined. On an average, a farmer suffered a loss of fifteen to twenty thousand rupees per acre. Along with this, the situation worsened due to deaths of livestock, collapse of houses and breakdown of infrastructure. The industry was also not untouched by this. Factories and warehouses in industrial areas like Ambala and Yamuna Nagar were flooded, causing losses worth crores and thousands of workers were deprived of employment.
Administrative negligence is the biggest reason behind this situation. The Haryana government neither has a village-level drainage plan nor any permanent strategy. Instead of cleaning the drains before the monsoon, only superficial works are done. In many places, the drainage systems are clogged for years. Despite spending crores of rupees, the flow of rivers and drains remains the same. Apart from this, the lack of coordination between the irrigation department, disaster management department and local bodies makes the situation even more serious. Every department works within its own area, but due to lack of coordination, no concrete results are seen.
Water management experts believe that it is imperative to formulate a comprehensive and long-term strategy to control floods. Experts like Dr. Shiv Singh Rath clearly say that only regular dredging of rivers, scientific reconstruction of rain drains and construction of drainage system up to village level can provide a permanent solution.
Environmentalists also argue that uncontrolled encroachment and illegal construction on the banks of rivers further increase the horror of floods. Till the rivers are not returned to their natural flow, this tragedy will keep recurring again and again.
The suffering of farmers and common people is much deeper than the statistics. Thousands of families are forced to live in relief camps for months. Children’s education is disrupted, women and elderly people’s health deteriorates and the working class becomes a victim of unemployment. This time too, more than six thousand villages were submerged in water and about twenty-eight hundred people were displaced. Imagine, when such a large number of people are displaced from their homes, to what extent their mental and social condition would be shaken.
The biggest question is that when there have been big floods like 2010 and 2023, what was the justification for repeating the same mistake in 2025. The real reasons are clear. Lack of political will never allowed this issue to become an election agenda.
The approach of the governments has always been short-term. Every year there was expenditure on relief and rehabilitation, but there was no investment on permanent structures. Along with this, corruption and wastage of resources made the situation worse.
If a permanent solution is really needed, the state will have to take concrete steps. An independent river management commission will have to be formed, which will regularly do work like cleaning of rivers and drains, embankment construction and monitoring. Drainage plan should be prepared at every panchayat level and its strict compliance should be ensured. Using technology, satellite mapping, artificial intelligence based forecasting and real-time monitoring system will have to be implemented. Cleaning of drains and maintenance of embankments will have to be ensured with the participation of local people. And most importantly, instead of spending billions of rupees on relief packages, investment should be made on permanent infrastructure and structures.
In fact, flood is not just a natural disaster, it is also the result of human negligence and policy failure. Haryana has faced floods nine times, but every time the matter was limited to counting figures and making promises. The suffering of the farmers, the loss of industries and the tragedy of displaced families tell us that half-hearted measures will no longer work. The government and society together will have to adopt a comprehensive, scientific and long-term flood management policy, otherwise in 2027 or 2030 we will have to read the same news again – “Another flood, another loss and another unfulfilled promise.”
Dr. Satyawan Saurabh