The Kosi river basin
in Bihar is facing its biggest ever flood disaster ever, and that
disaster has come about completely due to the neglect of the Government
of India and the government of Bihar. It is a manmade disaster which
could have been avoided.
Amidst the din of 'national calamity, catastrophe and river changing
course', about two million people are facing forced submergence and
displacement. The governments of India and Bihar are going about the
relief work as if it is a favour they are doing for the people. That
favour is being doled out in a totally haphazard, unplanned, callous
way.
For immediate relief it is important that those being brought out from
the waterlogged areas be given cooked food for at least two days. There
should be planned settlements for such people, with arrangements for
shelter, fuel, fodder, medicines, hygiene etc, as they are likely to
have to stay at these places for up to two months. The affected people
need not be considered as victims as is the case now, but should be
involved in the whole exercise. Two million people cannot be resettled
by outsiders. And in the comparatively lax law and order situation of
Bihar, the responsibility of the state and the Centre increases
considerably in ensuring dignified relief and resettlement.
In this effort, another very important aspect seems to be totally
ignored. Most (about 85 per cent) of the 1.5 lakh cusecs (cubic feet
per second) of Kosi water is flowing through the breach in the
embankment that started with a small, few metres-wide breach on the
eastern side, 12.9 km upstream of the barrage in the afternoon of
August 18. This water is flowing through three of the 15 old streams of
the Kosi river, namely Sursar, Mirchaiya and Belhi, says Dinesh Kumar
Mishra, possibly the most well-informed person in India on Bihar
floods, from his camp at Khagaria. This water is entering an area that
does not have the capacity drain so much water.
Vijay Kumar of Nagrik Pahal, Patna, says an urgent assessment is needed
to identify the bottlenecks in the drainage of this water into the Kosi
river at Kursela, and assess what viable steps are possible to remove
those bottlenecks. For, the longer the water remains in this zone of
flooding, more damaging would it be for the people and the state.
Similarly, it is important to ensure that the Kosi is able to drain out
its water into the Ganga. But the Ganga has been flowing above the
danger mark at Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Farakka (West Bengal), as per
the Central Water Commission's (Government of India) flood forecasting
site for almost two months now and is further rising. Efforts would
have to be made to see how this can be reduced.
Coming to how this all started, let us look at some facts. The barrage
on the Kosi river, just before it enters India in Supaul district of
Bihar from the upstream Sunsari district of Nepal, was built under the
1954 Indo-Nepal Treaty. The responsibility for the proper operation and
maintenance of the barrage and the 22-km long embankment on both sides
of the river is the Government of India's. In the afternoon of August
18, when the embankment breached, the flow of water was about 1.44 lakh
cusecs, when the embankment and the barrage are supposed to have a
designed capacity of 9.5 lakh cusecs. The fact that the embankment
breached at such a low flow compared to the design capacity speaks
volumes about the silt accumulation on the Kosi riverbed and about the
abysmal state of maintenance of the embankment. The statement from the
Indian embassy in Kathmandu that Nepal did not cooperate in ensuring
timely maintenance is adding insult to the grave catastrophe.
The monsoon in this part of Bihar starts in early June. And the repair
and maintenance of the embankment is supposed to be completed before
the onset of the monsoon. So it is clear that firstly, the maintenance
be done by the required date and the Government of India could have
ensured, at least for the sake of the two million people of Bihar and
Nepal in the risk zone, that all measures were taken to ensure timely
maintenance was done by June. That was not done.
Moreover, the pressure on the breached site on the embankment was
apparent from August 5 onwards. Even at this stage, if the Government
of India had used all its powers to ensure proper maintenance, the
disaster could have been averted. That too was not done.
When the news of the breach broke on August 18, the governments in
Delhi [Images] and Kathmandu could have woken up to see that the water
flowing out of the breached portion cannot re-enter the Kosi river
since the river is embanked at least 135 km downstream from the site of
the breach. That water was bound to take the path of least resistance,
and the possibility of it going into the old Kosi streams was the
strongest. However, neither government woke up even on August 18.
Thus, precious time was wasted. If the government had woken up on
August 18, then a more planned evacuation was possible and most of the
lakhs of people marooned today would not be there. It is clear that
there has been a series of grave and criminal blunders that have led to
this disaster of huge proportions. The trouble is, even now we do not
know who people are whose neglect caused this disaster, and going by
our track record we may never know who they are.
Among other things, the prime minister after visiting the area declared
that resources would be made available to repair the breach in the
embankment. The government may even succeed in doing that and bringing
the Kosi back to its pre-August 18 course. But we must remember that
the bed level of Kosi all along the embanked portion of about 150 km
has risen, and there is no way this embankment strategy can go on for
long. The frequency of such disasters would only increase in the years
to come.
The option of the proposed big reservoirs is also a false hope.
According to the documents prepared right in 1937, when the big storage
reservoir on the Kosi was proposed, that dam would silt up in 37 years,
keeping in mind the silt carried by the river. By now the catchment is
further degraded and the proposed dam would silt up in even less time.
No economically viable strategy for desilting the river or the
reservoir is available. So this is completely false hope.
So the perennial questions that the nay-sayers face: What is the
alternative?
Firstly, the government's notion that floods equals disaster would have
to be given up.
Secondly, the water that flows through the Kosi does not fall on that
river. It is the accumulation effect of rainfall and glacier melt along
the whole of its huge catchment. That catchment would have to be
treated at micro and macro levels. Wetlands, forests, local water
systems, aquifers would have to be protected, their destruction
stopped, and additional capacities created where possible.
Else, we might remember what Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda said after
a visit to this area, one of his first tasks as PM, that the Indo-Nepal
Treaty of 1954 was a historical blunder. That phrase actually applies
to the whole embankment strategy.
Lastly, those calling the Kosi as the sorrow of Bihar need to know that
the people living along the Kosi do not consider it their sorrow, but
as their mother and worship the river like their mother. This rather
stupid phrase was possibly coined by a British tax-collector who found
it difficult to collect his quota of revenue from this area. Is it not
high time we stopped using the colonial phrase for a river?
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