Uttarakhand

• 03 Nov 2022

MoU between Disaster Management Department and Irrigation Research Institute (IRI), Roorkee

Why In News?

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Department of Disaster Management and Irrigation Research Institute (IRI), Roorkee, at the State Secretariat, Dehradun, Uttarakhand on November 2, 2022. According to the agreement, water resources data will be shared between the two institutions.

Key Points

• Disaster Management Secretary Dr. Ranjit Kumar Sinha informed that under this agreement, sensors will be installed to measure the water level in major rivers of the state. With the help of automatic water level recorder, real time data will be available at one place and the system developed for real time monitoring will be directly connected with the control of Disaster Management Department set up in the State Secretariat.
• With this, the disaster control room will continue to receive all the data from all the sensors installed in rivers and dams. Based on the information received by the Disaster Control Room, warnings will be issued in real time during the flood threat situation.
• In the first phase, manual sensors will be removed from all rivers and automatic sensors will be installed in their place. These sensors will be installed under the Central Hydrology Project. All dams in the state will have automatic sensors upstream and automatic sirens will be installed in the downstream.
• He said that the real-time monitoring system to measure the water level of rivers and dams will be very helpful in disaster management and the warning system will be effective by getting data at one place. This mechanism will be ready in two months.
• It is worth mentioning that IRI, Roorkee in the state is developing such a mechanism in the rivers under the National Hydrology Project, which will increase the water level in the major rivers of Uttarakhand, then the Disaster Management Department will get an immediate alert.
• Automatic sensors will also be installed in the downstream of dams and real-time monitoring of major rivers and dams will be done. This will enable development of flood forecasting and early warning mechanism.