Every year similar pictures emerge from Assam. Village under water. Roads were cut off. Erosion of river banks is swallowing houses. And even when the water goes away, many families are forced to restart their lives.
According to the latest bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), this year’s floods have subsided, with only Dhemaji district still affected. According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), around 16,000 people in 69 villages across four revenue areas in Dhemaji have been affected by the floods.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa SarmaEarlier, he said he briefed Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the ongoing relief and rehabilitation measures. Sarma said, “I thank the Honorable Home Minister Shri Amit Shah ji for his phone call and inquiry about the flood situation in Dhemaji. I have briefed him about the ongoing relief and rehabilitation measures. He has also assured us of all possible support and assistance from the Government of India to deal with this situation.”
The annual crisis has once again triggered protests and raised fresh questions: Why do floods keep happening in Assam every year? And why was the problem not resolved?
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A ‘life jacket’ protest
Earlier this month, on the opening day of the budget session of the Assam Assembly, Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi arrived wearing a life jacket. His protests were aimed at the frequent floods and waterlogging in Guwahati as well as flooding in his constituency Sivasagar.
“If it rains for five minutes, Guwahati comes to a halt. Roads get submerged and damaged, flyovers are affected and people risk their lives every year due to artificial floods,” Gogoi told reporters.
He also accused the government of failing to fulfill its 2016 promise to permanently solve Guwahati’s flood problem.
“This life jacket is a warning shot to the government. Today’s protest is just the beginning. I will continue to raise this issue inside the House and demand concrete measures to end the artificial flood crisis in both Guwahati and Sivasagar,” he said.
The same day, the Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP) demonstrated for three hours at district headquarters, demanding that the Center declare Assam’s recurring flood and erosion crisis as a national disaster.
Why do floods occur so frequently in Assam?
The simple answer is geography. Assam lies in the floodplain of the Brahmaputra, one of the largest sediment-carrying rivers in the world. The river begins in the Tibetan Plateau, flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and is joined by more than 50 tributaries before eventually reaching the Bay of Bengal.
Each monsoon, huge amounts of water come from heavy rainfall, snow melting and tributaries flowing from the Himalayas.
But experts say rain is only part of the story.
serious problem
According to the National Flood Commission, about 40% of Assam is flood-prone. This is almost four times the national average.
Since the 70s, the state has been experiencing frequent floods every year for the last several decades. Serious incidents were seen in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024.
According to ASDMA, two days ago, flood waters hit a district in Assam and affected 15 villages and 3,917 people in just 24 hours.
The Brahmaputra carries a large amount of silt.
Dhrubjyoti Sahariya, a professor of geography at Gauhati University and a floodplain researcher, told HT that the Brahmaputra naturally flows through a very young and unstable floodplain.
He told that after Pasighat, the slope of the river becomes very gentle till Dhubri. As the river slows down, it cannot carry all the sediment brought from the mountains.
“It is one of the most sediment-carrying rivers in the world,” he told HT.
As a result, huge amounts of sand and silt get deposited in the flood zone every year. Sahariya said that now more sediment is coming down from the hills.
Deforestation is making the problem worse
“One of the major reasons is that there has been severe deforestation,” he said.
According to Sahariya, districts like Lakhimpur, Biswanath and Dhemaji are particularly vulnerable as rivers like Siang, Jiadhal, Subansiri, Ranganadi and Dikrong flow through them.
The hills above are composed of loose sandy material, making them highly prone to landslides and soil erosion.
“A little rain, a lot of rain can lead to extreme landslides, extreme soil erosion. But it has increased due to deforestation,” he told HT.
He believes officials have focused too much on downstream flood-control structures while ignoring what’s happening upstream.
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“I think that, as opposed to working downstream, we should work upstream, especially in soil conservation measures.”
He also pointed to reports of illegally cut logs being deposited in the dam’s reservoirs as another sign of large-scale deforestation.
Why does it rain so much in Assam?
Sunit Das, senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), told HT that Assam’s location naturally makes it one of the wettest regions of India.
“Most of the rainfall over Assam occurs during the southwest monsoon season,” he told HT. “This is due to the combined effect of south-westerly winds at lower levels of the atmosphere, favorable topography and cyclonic circulation such as active monsoon synoptic system, presence of monsoon trough over the northeast region and moisture entry from the Bay of Bengal,” he told HT.
Sahariya said there is a strong link between the weather phenomenon La Nina and floods in Assam. Still, he advised against blaming climate change solely for every flood. “This year, we cannot say that climate change is responsible for this flood event.”
What climate change is doing, he said, is making flooding more intense. “Flood peaks… are higher… more devastation and extreme events are increasing,” the professor said.
Why can’t embankments alone solve the problem?
For decades, Assam has depended heavily on embankments to control floods.
Since the 1950s, the state has built 423 embankments on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. About 295 have already completed their intended lifespan, making violations common.
Sahariya says this approach has limitations because the Brahmaputra is naturally unstable.
“The Brahmaputra floodplain is a very new floodplain and it is still not stable and very aggressive in nature.”
In simple terms, the river changes its course frequently, making permanent engineering solutions difficult.
“So these types of direct structural measures may not always be possible.”
Is there any solution?
Sahariya votes for basin-wide management that considers the entire river system rather than individual projects. He also says that flood management does not just mean building structures.
He believes that traditional flood zone communities have long adapted to annual floods. “We need to train residents on how to live with floods.”
He pointed to communities like the Mising people, who traditionally built homes suitable for flood-prone areas.
“But somehow we are moving away from this traditional technique. We are adopting new ways of building houses or perhaps building houses in the flood zone itself, but without adopting the traditional flood zone measures,” he told HT.
Will building big dams solve floods?
Sahariya feels that smaller dams may be more suitable. “I believe that small dams are a better solution than large dams in this region.”
He says that if large dams are built they should use the best available technology as Northeast India is located in a highly active earthquake zone.
“Otherwise we are in a very unstable situation against earthquakes…Mega dams could cause very serious devastation.”
flood toll
According to data from the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), the average number of people affected annually in Assam increased from about 8.6 lakh in the 1950s to more than 45 lakh in the early 2000s. The economic loss has increased more than 120 times.
According to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), at least 838 people died in the floods between 2013 and 2022. 181 deaths were recorded in the year 2022, the highest in a decade.
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The problem does not end just because the water goes away
Although flood waters have receded to a great extent this year, the damage continues.
In Dhemaji, the Dikhari River changed its course during the flood, cutting off the settlement and destroying homes, farms and public infrastructure. A railway bridge collapsed in the area.
Villagers in the Lohit Khabolu area recently built a bamboo bridge themselves as damaged bridges were isolating communities and making access to schools and hospitals difficult.
“We have lost everything,” one villager told local outlet Northeast Now. “Our house, belongings and fields have all been destroyed. We are now living in a makeshift shelter built on high bamboo platforms and surviving on relief provided by the government.”
Another said, “The river never flowed through this part of the village before.” “After changing its course, it swept away houses and cattle. Electricity was also disrupted as electric poles and transmission lines were damaged,” the local said.
