Assam Integrated River Basin Management Project (AIRBMP)

The project mainly deals with mitigating flood risk and river erosion risks. The Phase 1 of the project is spread across three river basins in Assam, India:

• River Beki (3892 km²)
• Buridehing river (2985 km²)
• Jiadhal, tributary of Brahmaputra River (1113 km²)

The overall aim of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of people to climate-related disasters and improve integrated water resources management in Assam, through 3 project components:

• Institutional Strengthening and Strategic Studies
• Water Resources Management
• Disaster Risk Management

Institutional Strengthening and Strategic Studies

The activities encompass preparing Assam's first State Water Policy, conducting a baseline "State of the Basin Report," and promoting transboundary knowledge on water resources among Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and the northeast riparian Indian states. Additionally, the plan includes assessing a multi-hazard risk financing strategy with weather-based parametric insurance, enhancing ASDMA's post-disaster needs assessment capacity, and conducting a feasibility study on flash flood forecasting in Assam's mountainous regions.

Water Resources Management

River Works investments will focus on protecting critical river stretches through anti-erosion measures, strengthening flood embankments, implementing emergency river works, and piloting nature-based solutions. These initiatives aim to safeguard communities at risk from catastrophic losses from embankment failures. The project will develop an action plan encompassing both structural and non-structural approaches for Flood Forecasting and Integrated Flood Risk Management Plan (IFRMPs) in eight tributary river basins in Assam, with a particular emphasis on stakeholder engagement and capacity building for women's effective and active participation. Additionally, support will be provided for WRD's forecasting, planning activities, and the preparation of a flood embankment asset management plan.

Disaster Risk Management

• The project will upgrade schools designated as flood relief shelters, provide training on flood shelter management, and aim for at least 40% women in decision-making roles for designing and managing new shelters.
• Training will cover leadership, administration, and capacity building for women representatives in fiduciary and procurement processes, as well as awareness on planning approaches that consider women's needs.
• The project will enhance the Early Warning and Dissemination System (EWDS) by upgrading state-level Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) and selected district facilities to provide geo-referenced alerts through cell-phone broadcasting and establish a geospatial laboratory.
• Circle Quick Response Teams (CQRT) will receive training in life-saving skills, personal protective equipment, and emergency responder kits. At least 30% of each team will be female members, and gender sensitivity training will be provided to consider the specific needs of men, women, and children during emergencies.
• The project will enhance community resilience through the preparation of Village Disaster Mitigation Plans (VDMPs), constructing low-cost resilient housing demonstration structures, providing training and equipment, including lightning arrestors and emergency warning systems. Women-only task forces will be established in each village to gather input on women's resilience needs and priorities for the VDMP.

The project has five sub-components to enhance Assam's disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery capacity. It includes conducting an institutional assessment of village disaster management committees to address barriers hindering women's effective and active participation.

There are two main groups of beneficiaries. The first group comprises around 100,000 people living along the Beki and Buridehing rivers, who will experience reduced flood and river erosion risks, and approximately 10,000 people who will gain access to upgraded or new flood shelters. This group primarily consists of rural, poor individuals, including marginalized social groups. The second group includes an estimated 6,000,000 people benefiting from improved emergency alerts through the EWDS and 4,200,000 people benefiting from enhanced flood forecasting in the Beki, Buridehing, and Jiadhal basins.

The flood shelters, designed to accommodate specific needs, will house around 500 people each. The plan aims to pilot 25 new shelters with flood shelter committees, expanding to approximately 250 shelters based on lessons learned.

The EWDS will provide real-time geotagged alerts via various communication channels, including the cell phone network, simultaneously to multiple locations. The State EOC will be upgraded, and new EOCs will be established in at least 10 districts, with the goal of establishing cutting-edge state-level EOCs in all 35 districts and at least 30 percent of Assam's 154 revenue circles. The objective is to ensure that at least 75 percent of households in Assam receive cell-based, geo-referenced warnings. The program will also focus on training and equipping CQRTs for all 154 revenue circles in Assam.

The following are the implementation challenges in course of strategy development:

• This project is the first of its kind in India, where so many different prospective sectors of disaster resilience were brought together on the same project. Additionally, the availability and quality of data was also drastically fluctuating from basin to basin. This meant regular and in-depth stakeholder consultations with multidisciplinary groups to gather data, disseminate and assimilate knowledge and address concerns.
• In the context of the anti-erosion work on banks of rivers Beki and Buridehing, geobags are being used in large quantities. Sand for the geobags is sourced locally to increase sustainability and self-reliance of the proposed solutions.
• The nature of Beki River is quite flashy, and consequently, a lot of boulders and pebbles would often damage the geobags. To prevent the same, geobags were caged with wires. In the case of Buridehing river, in addition to anti-erosion work via geobags, Porcupines (concrete pillars) were also installed to upgrade and strengthen the embankments. The pillars help to break the momentum and magnitude of the river currents.