Flood Dispatch  6 / 2005

The Sinking Foundation of Task Force Report (2005) – 2

Cho Ramaswamy, an authour, critic, satirist and a social worker had attempted to publish undated newspapers in late 1960s. The news of bundhs, Gheraos, political betrayals, train accidents, dacoities, riots, floods and droughts together with  condolences etc were all clubbed in the newspaper and one only had to put a date on it to read it as a fresh news paper. I have a vague memory of that newspaper of my  student days when we used to appreciate the genius of Ramaswamy.

The Report of Task Force For Flood Management / Erosion Control is one such report that can be rated as the modern version of Cho Ramaswamy’s Flood Report. It could be a report of any year’s post flood situation. Since the embankment debate to tame the rivers is not yet settled among the engineers, nor there are any chances of this getting settled in future, it provides an opportunity to many engineers sitting on the fence to jump on to the side where the bread is buttered. The Report says , “…Extreme views have emerged out of these. Many NGOs have voiced serious criticism about existing embankments. One is that the problem of flood can be solved by removal of all the existing embankments and the other diametrically opposite being that construction of more and more lengths of the embankments and their raising and strengthening is the only practicable medium/ short term solution of the floods problem.”

The point here is why the buck of indicating non-performance of embankments is passed on to NGOs. Don’t the engineers have eyes and ears of their own? What more evidence is needed against the performance of the embankments when the Report itself observes that there had been altogether 336 breaches in the embankments in Assam Valley alone. Of these, 249 breaches occurred in the Brahmaputra Basin and 87 in the Barak. One breach anywhere upstream is enough to ruin the flow mechanism of the river and distort the life of the people downstream. One can only wish that the Task Force have had the courage to utter the words that it puts in the mouth of NGOs. Did the Task Force ever bother to take the version of those who were exposed to the surges of water when the embankment breached in midnight amidst rains and dark nights with nowhere to go?

In Bihar, in the Report submitted to the Central Team, the memorandum submitted by the State Government said that there had been 50 braches in the embankments along the rivers and the State Government patted its back by saying that, in 1987, there were 300 braches in the embankments in the State and hence it performed better. The fact is that there were 105 breaches in the embankments in Bihar in 1987 and the remaining breaches occurred in the Zamindari and  Maharaji embankments which the Water Resources Department of the State shouts from the roof tops that they don’t belong to the Water Resources but are the property of the Revenue Department. A proposal was brought in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, way back in 1966, to transfer the ownership of Zamindari and Maharaji embankments to the WRD of the State. Around forty years have passed and the issue is yet to be resolved. The WRD, however, exercises its ownership over these embankments when it suits them.

The Report further says that “…The reason for such wide divergence in opinion is obviously due to the inadequacy of sufficient number of performance evaluation studies of existing embankments and the divergent views on their performance.” What prevents these concerned departments from conducting such performance evaluation studies and leave the conclusion on to the opinion poll of individuals and NGOs. What are the departments there for if they cannot review the results of their own doing and act accordingly?

It suggests that the critics are “…justified to some extent because improperly designed, constructed, spaced and poorly maintained flood control work without due regard to river morphology etc have not given much relief to flood problem in some areas.” Is it this our Irrigation and Flood Control Departments were doing for the past 58 years since independence? Are they there for improperly designing, spacing, and poorly maintaining flood control works without due regard to river morphology? 

Dinesh Kumar Mishra
Convenor-Barh Mukti Abhiyan
C-7 Vatika Green City  PO  MGMC
Dimna Road  Jamshedpur  831018
Ph: 0657-2650844  Mob: 09431303360
E-mail  mishrdadk@...

2nd June 2005