Floods are the most commonly occurring in Uttar Pradesh affecting almost every year some or the other part of the state. Important rivers, which create floods in the State, are the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Ramganga, the Gomti, the Sharda, the Ghaghra, the Rapti and the Gandak. The rainfall increases from west to east and from south to north .Similar is the pattern of floods ,the problem increases from west to east and south to north. Out of the 240.93 lakh hectares geographical area of the State about 73.06 lakh hectares is flood prone.

Since the last week of July, 2007 about 20 districts, mostly from eastern zone of the State have been severely hit by the onslaught of flood. In these districts the climates of floods was seen on 7th August, 2007 when 2634 villages were affected by the floods and area of 5.58 lakh hectare was under flood waters. This way about 4.16 lakh hectare of land under agriculture was affected. With such gigantic problem only government efforts will not able to solve the situation. Hence it is the pious duty of the voluntary sector to shoulder the responsibility of tackling the flood menace with a government. UPVAN, a network of 245 organization in 54 district of the state has come forward in this regard.

Areas of intervention By UPVAN:

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has issued the revised CRF guidelines on 31st July, 2007 , where in relief measures have been declared, but at the field level there was hardly any knowledge about these guidelines, hence UPVAN has got printed sufficient number of copies and got distributed the same in the affected areas through its network organizations. Refer to : Apda Evam Manveey Sahyog

• Helping the flood stricken people through the volunteers through our network organizations (list enclosed).
• Assessing the flood situation through the UPVAN Sachivalay and submitting its reports to the government and all concerned.
• It is also proposed that UPVAN field volunteers would go in affected areas and prepare a database of girls and children who are in rehabilitation camps, whether they are with their parents or not. The volunteers would also go to affected areas and in case they find any children without family, they will enlist them in their database and admit them in the camps. At times, the volunteers may also support the children and women till the time they reach the camps.
• Networking with local media and police, along with district administration, to release the photographs and information about these children and girls.