Climate change is causing a sharp change in temperatures, rainfall intensity and quantity and Meghalaya has to adapt to these issues, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said here today.
Sangma just returned from a tour of Garo Hills where he saw for himself the level of flooding, especially in low lying plain belt areas. Around 32,000 people have been affected in Garo Hills by flooding in recent days and weeks as the Brahmaputra River in Assam has swollen due to heavy rains in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere.
2024 has been made more challenging due to the El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena, phases of atmospheric and therefore oceanic warming and cooling that affect global temperatures and precipitation.
It is not just the quantity of rainfall that has changed but the intensity as well, Sangma said, with cloud bursts and heavy rainfall being experienced more often.
“Therefore to adapt to all of this is not very simple,” he said.
As the El Nino-La Nina weather trends had been predicted, the state government had held several meetings chaired by the CM. “We have been preparing for these kinds of situations in the last three-four months,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sangma was also asked whether dredging of the Brahmaputra has been a worthwhile food mitigation effort for Garo Hills. He explained that the central project is still ongoing and will not see the kind of impact hoped for until it is completed.
