ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 78
country providing high quality of urban services including water supply, sewerage and solid waste disposal. It is also leading the efforts in energy conservation. The private sector
stakeholders are well aware of need for business continuity in spite of facing high natural disaster risks. In addition to individual initiatives in social work and philanthropy, under the
umbrella of SGCCI, private sector has taken several initiatives including support in relief activities, ensuring rapid return of industries and trade to normal after each disaster. The
communities have always demanded for better services and have shown willingness to pay for the services, without raising issues. It has also responded to the initiatives of SMC and
private sector in disaster relief activities.
Despite these, there are many issues that need to be addressed to strengthen the linkages for concerted action on adaptation. They are:
Most of the stakeholders are unaware of the future risks rising out of rapid urbanisation and climate change and associated vulnerability issues. For example, the
city expanded in to the coastal zone, but land use rules to prevent the urban growth especially high value real estate in current and future high risk zones is still not in
place. The coastal area may soon become one of the most sought after real estate.
One of the major constraints within the government departments is inability unable to manage Ukai dam sufficiently rising out of competing demands and lack of
coordination. The warning time can be increased by better real time weather and river level monitoring, controlled releases to increase time for the SMC to respond.
The private sector, especially the real-estate development sector has not responded sufficiently to risks and uncontrolled growth may be increasing risks. Since the
communities have little options, the housing without sufficient flood protection is observed.
Currently, Surat has sufficient water resources allocated to meet the urban demands. The industry meets part of its requirements from ground water also. The water
conservation has not been thought seriously either by SMC or by communities. With growing demand, the community may have to learn about water and energy
conservation and this can only be done by active coordination between government and communities, which will be a challenge in the currently water surplus city.
Surat has relied on labor oriented growth catalysed by migrant labor. Human resources base is still weak with significant proportion of low endextremely
specialized skill sets, which would require major retraining in case of shift in economy. The educational system is not geared to address these issues at the scale
Surat may require in the future. While some efforts have been initiated by local Technical institutions the scale of demand may rise in case of major changes in
industry sector. Even though the city economy is strong now, its vulnerability is also high. Disasters can be a potential tipping point.
5.7 Hydro meteorological Risks
The city of Surat, located on the western part of India in the state of Gujarat on the River Tapti, is an important historical trade centre and trade link between India and many other
countries. The city has one of the highest proposed investments and almost zero percent unemployment. It is one of the fastest growing cities in India. Surat is located on the banks of
Tapti river near it’s confluence with Arabian Sea. Tapti basin is about 587 km long from east to West and about 201 km wide N to S and is elongated in shape passing through Madhya
Pradesh and Maharashtra. The basin has two well-defined physical regions, viz. the hilly
ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 79
region and the plains. The hilly region covers the Satpuras, the Satmalas, the Ajanta and the Gawilgarh hills with good forests. The Khandesh and the Gujarat plains are broad and fertile
areas suitable for cultivation. The Tapti basin consists mainly of black cotton soils. The coastal plains in Gujarat are composed of alluvial clays with a layer of black soil on the
surface.
Flood History Tapti is one of the large perennial rivers in western India. It is 724 km long originating from
Multai in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh. It meets Arabian Sea near Surat. Total catchment area of the Tapti river basin is 65,145 km2 including about 79, 15, and 6 in Maharastra,
MP, and Gujarat respectively. In the catchment area of Tapti River, the monsoon generally starts during the third week of June and there are occasional heavy rainstorms from the
beginning of August to the end of September. The mean annual rainfall in the basin is estimated to be about 758 mm. and the average monsoon rainfall from 1988 to 1998 was 897
mm. The maximum annual rainfall 1168 mm and the minimum of 257 mm were recorded in 1944 and 1899. Most of the floods in Tapti occurred during August.
Throughout the history of more than seven centuries, the city of Surat has experienced floods, fires and plague epidemics. The city earlier had a flood protection ring wall built with bricks
and several gates, which were closed during floods. Westerly moving depressions arising out of Bay of Bengal moving from upper Tapti catchment to the Arabian sea cause heavy rainy
spells lasting 3-5 days. The runoff often gets concentrated due to this process, causing heavy river discharges by the time the flood water reaches Surat. During the period 1876 to 2009,
the Tapti crossed the danger level at Hope Bridge in Surat 27 times, i.e., on an average every five years.
While the river within embankments can safely discharge about 0.3 million cusecs, the inflows of up to 1.3 million cusec for 3 to 5 days has to be managed to control floods, often at
the end of the rainy season. Due to these conflicting objectives, the dam cannot provide complete flood control safety to Surat. Since the city is located near the mouth of the river,
the high tides also reach the western part of the city. The Tapti flood during the high tide also prevents smooth outflow of flood discharges resulting in higher flood levels and consequent
damages.
However, the floods were not regular as seen from the Table 29 presented below.
Table 29: Reported Surat Floods
Sl. No. Year
Total
1 1870-1879
1 2
1880-1889 3
3 1890-1899
1 4
1910-1919 1
5 1930-1939
3 6
1940-1949 4
7 1950-1959
3 8
1960-1969 2
9 1970-1979
3
ACCCRN – City Vulnerability Assessment Report 80
Table 29: Reported Surat Floods
Sl. No. Year
Total
10 1990-1999
3 11
2000-2009 3
Grand Total 27
Source: SMDP
The 1968 flood was the biggest flood with peak flow of about 15 lakh cubic feet of water per second Cusecs. The flood in 1970 too was quite big with a peak flow of 13.14 lakh cusec.
IIMA 2007.
Box 6: Story of the Ukai Dam
Ukai multipurpose Dam was constructed to irrigate the coastal plains of Gujarat with three objectives of irrigation, electricity generation and partial flood control. According to the introductory booklet published by
the State Government on the Ukai Project: “This project would provide effective protection against floods to Surat city and other downstream areas. It would be possible to release water from reservoir in advance in a
regulated manner, as soon as warning of the approaching flood is received from the upstream areas. This would create adequate space in the reservoir to store floodwaters.”
Ukai has a gross cultural command of 0.38 million ha. It also provides drinking water for most of the towns in Surat, Valsad and Navasari districts. Located in the semi arid zone, the Ukai catchment has high diversity in
rainfall pattern and managing summer irrigation and drinking water at the same time as a reservoir for flood control which is challanging. Source: Climate Change Explorer
In addition to Tapti floods, Surat also faces the local floods from two small streams passing through southern part of the city. These streams flood only during heavy local rains and can
cause damage to the settlements located near the banks. These floods are called Khadi floods khadi, means small stream. The losses due to flood damages are very high. The 2006 floods
has reported to have caused property damage worth Rs.21,000 Crores Source: South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers People
Around Surat, large areas that were previously agricultural fields and thus were open, has been brought under the city limits and developed. As a result, many high-rise apartments and
other buildings have come up in those areas. Besides these, many factors like construction in flood plain areas, flood embankment, filling of riverbed by 3 meters at Hazira in hundreds of
square km area, silting of riverbed due to tides, construction of Singanpore weir, construction of new bridges, etc., has reduced the carrying capacity of the River and open space for spread
of floodwaters.
5.8 Climate change Scenario for Surat
