Silchar, Aug. 10: Dispur has hit upon a new strategy to counter floods, which is likely to offer alternatives to the structural measures currently in place.

From now onwards, the Assam government will place more emphasis on non-structural techniques.

Till now, the administration had depended solely on structural measures, such as long embankments and dykes, to combat floods. But the water resource department is now toying with the idea of using a slew of non-structural steps such as flood proofing, flood plain zoning and fault-free rain forecasting.

A senior state government official said such structural deterrence for tackling floods has, of late, been found to be expensive as well as unreliable.

Flood control specialists in the state now favour prioritising a sound flood proofing system by setting up a large number of improvised shelters on raised earthen platforms in rural areas. These would be assured of drinking water supply, ready food stocks and medical relief, the official said here today.

The concept of flood proofing is now making waves among technical experts and policymakers in Dispur after chief minister Tarun Gogoi emphasised this device in Guwahati as well as this town last month.

Talking to mediapersons here, Gogoi emphasised the need to establish boat squads and build up food stocks at identified raised lands. These would be used as platforms to provide shelter to flood-affected people in the state.

Gogoi is said to have borrowed the idea of raised flood platforms from former chief minister Sarat Chandra Sinha, who had suggested this scheme in the mid-seventies.

Experts also consider the plan of flood plain zoning, which may cut across the district and state boundaries, as one of the most important non-structural flood management devices.

A source added that the need for regularly updating flood-risk maps for the state also attracted the attention of the water resource department as part of its non-structural plan to tackle seasonal floods.

The state government has further proposed that the Brahmaputra Board, under the Union water resource ministry, should strengthen itself by inducting technical experts with proven track records and opening offices in every district of the state. It has also suggested that management of other turbulent tributaries should be left to the state water resource department.