Flood Dispatch  7 / 2005          

According to the Task Force Report the length of embankments along Bihar rivers is 3454 kilometers. The fact is that Bihar has an embankment length of 3430 kilometers. At one stage this length was 3465 kilometers (1993) but 11 kilometers length was washed away and the other 24 kilometers has gone to Jharkhand leaving behind 3430 kilometers in Bihar.  The Task Force report is unaware that Jahrkhand is carved out of Bihar long back and it should have corrected its figures. The Task Force report further says that the flood prone area of the state that was 4.26 million hectares in 1978  (National Commission on Floods-1980) has now gone up to 6.88 million hectares. The state has protected 2.95 million hectares against floods so far and hence 3.93 million hectares are yet to be protected. In 1978, the corresponding figures were 1.566 MH  and the area needing flood protection was 2.696 MH (4.26-1.566 = 2.696 MH). The Task Force says that only 1.31 MH needed protection in 1978 and it is difficult to say how did the Task Force arrived at such figures. This means that while the flood prone area of the state increased from 4.26 MH to 6.88 MH (more than one and a half times) during 1978-1994 (NCF data are based on 1978 figures), the area needing protection against floods also shot up by the same proportions. Obviously, nobody is responsible for the debacle.

The only reason for providing the data here was to establish that the Task Force never bothered to verify facts before finalizing the report and it was sure that nobody would read the report which, anyway, is not worth reading. No credible evaluation study of any flood protection work has been done so far admits the Task Force and ‘..whatever studies have been carried out lack credibility’. Unfortunately, the Report of the Task Force also falls in the same category. It wants ‘… the schemes for embankments and drainage improvement be evaluated by independent agencies so as to arrive at definite conclusions about their effectiveness and counter the criticism being made by different individuals and organizations.’ By saying so, the Task Force has already told that it expects the study to give a tool to the concerned departments so that they can counter the criticism by ‘individuals and organizations’. Can such ‘independent agencies’ be really independent?


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@...

6th June 2005