Human factors worsened deadly Assam floods, says global collaborative study

A global collaborative study has found that human factors, rather than climate change, were primarily responsible for the deadly floods in eastern Assam. The World Weather Attribution (WWA) team discovered that while heavy monsoonal rainfall in the region remained within historical norms, land-use changes significantly increased the impact of the floods.

Monsoonal downpours between late June and early August caused critical infrastructure to be breached, agricultural land to be washed away, and hundreds of thousands to be displaced. The study found that unplanned urbanisation, deforestation, wetland destruction, and riverbank erosion had degraded Assam's natural drainage capacity, leading to higher flood heights and downstream impacts.

Embankments, rather than mitigating floods, often exacerbated the problem by trapping silt and artificially raising riverbeds. Historical factors, including colonial-era land regulations and displacement, had also contributed to low-income agricultural families living on flood-prone sandbars, making them particularly vulnerable.

The study recommends expanding adaptation efforts to include floodplain restoration, wetland conservation, and anticipatory disaster risk management. Experts emphasize that while climate change may make future monsoon dynamics shift, proactive land and river management are crucial in mitigating future disasters.