Publication Name

Water stories

Beware, Assam

Reproduced and abridged with permission from The Telegraph, Calcutta, India

Come the monsoon and the mighty Brahmaputra overflows, ravaging parts of northeast India, and leading to some of the most destructive floods in the last 10 years.

owing to global warming, report scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) and University of New South Wales. A team led by Subashisa Dutta, professor at IIT- G’s department of civil engineering, has reported the Brahmaputra flood characteristics based on the latest climate projections and the empirical relationship between rainfall and floods in the river basin.

The Brahmaputra is a unique river, different from other peninsular Indian rivers and the Ganges, Dutta explained to KnowHow. The floods occur mostly in the main river channel and the river can flood two times – once owing to pre-monsoon showers from March to May and again during the monsoon. Dutta says that most international researchers only consider the flood peak – the maximum height to which floodwaters rise – as an indicator

There’s worse to come, say scientists.

The river has the world’s highest specific discharge. The volume of floodwaters and the height to which they will rise is set to increase in the coming years

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