Flood warning a click away

In an effort to connect with the common man, the Central Water Commission (CWC) has launched an exclusive web portal where people can directly access flood forecasts, trends and warnings on a real-time basis.

"Anybody who has an Internet connection or a smartphone can have a look at this (portal) for flood forecasts. This website would be very helpful, especially for those living in flood-prone areas," CWC Chairman A B Pandya told PTI.

The website -- http://www.india-water.gov.in/ffs -- was launched about a month ago after trials running for over a year.

The portal contains data on water levels recorded at 175 flood forecasting stations of CWC located in inter-state river basins across the country.

Different colour codes for water levels have been provided on the portal to indicate floods. While green stands for below flood-level, yellow indicates moderate flooding and red warns of high flood-level.

"The website also gives details of the river network," Mr Pandya said.

CWC is a premier technical organisation in the field of water resources and is functioning as an office attached to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The commission has also made arrangements for issuing flood forecasts through bulk SMSes to officials of the state disaster management agencies.

"We have also set up a bulk SMS service with the help of MTNL wherein all emergency planning officers with state disaster management agencies are sent SMSes about flood forecasts," Mr Pandya said.