Assam needs ‘national solution’ to floods: CM

Published 8 August 2026 · politics

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said finding a “national solution” to the State’s annual flooding was more important than declaring it a national problem

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said finding a “national solution” to the State’s annual flooding was more important than declaring it a national problem. Assam has a history of major floods up to five times a year, killing scores of people and animals and damaging crops and assets worth more than ₹1,000 crore annually. The floods this year have killed 98 people so far, most of them in three eastern districts—Sivasagar, Charaideo, and Jorhat.

For decades, the All Assam Students’ Union and other organisations have been asking the Centre to declare the State’s flood and erosion crisis as a “national problem”. “Declaring floods a national problem is not going to work. We need a national solution with scientific interventions. We need concrete schemes on how Assam can protect itself if water comes downhill from Nagaland,” the Chief Minister said on Friday (August 7, 2026).

“We can approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi for funds to implement the interventions required to solve this problem based on what the IITs, IIMs, Dibrugarh University, and Gauhati University can tell us,” he said. The Chief Minister said that Assam has long relied on embankments and geo-bags for flood management, but lacks a scientific mechanism to tackle the issue. “Merely declaring floods as a national problem will not suffice,” he said after visiting some flood-affected areas in Mangaldoi in north-central Assam’s Darrang district.

More than 77,000 people continue to take shelter in relief camps across the flood-affected districts. Officials said rehabilitation and restoration efforts have been stepped up in these districts.

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