[Assam] Did Govt's flood forecasting & embankments help?

Wed Aug 29 06:34:52 PDT 2007

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>Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:13:42 +0600 (IST)
>Subject: [WaterWatch] Re:Did Govt's flood forecasting & embankments help?
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>It is a futile exercise to expect the Water 
>Resources Department WRD, whether State or 
>Central, or the Central Water Commission CWC to 
>talk about issuing warnings for a possible 
>breach in the embankments. We have been raising 
>this issue in Bihar for years now but without 
>any result.
>
>The reason is not very difficult to find. The 
>state WRD which is responsible to repair and 
>maintain these embankments has a history of 
>refusing to accept that a breach has occurred at 
>some place ( Sohrai breach in the eastern Kamla 
>embankment near Jhanjharpur in Madhubani 
>district 1993) and it also has a history of 
>confusing victims of floods regarding the time 
>of breach (Famous Kosi embankment breach of 1984 
>). It is still not resolved whether the breach 
>had occurred on the 5th September or the 6th. If 
>only any of the Government Departments are 
>interested in protecting people against such 
>calamities; they will never pass the buck on to 
>the rats and foxes, which according to the 
>concerned departments dig holes in the body of 
>the embankments. These holes, according to them, 
>lead to failure of the embankments.
>
>To hide the inefficiency and irresponsibility of 
>their personnel, the WRD often suggests (on 
>record) that such and such embankment has not 
>breached and it was the handiwork of some 
>anti-social elements who cut the embankments 
>with ulterior motives. Newspaper reports from 
>Bihar during the flood season are full with such 
>incidences. It never occurs to WRD as to why 
>those for whose benefit an embankment has been 
>constructed would cut the embankment? Since it 
>does not occur at all to them, they never try to 
>find out the reason why an embankment is cut and 
>perpetuate the fraud on the people.
>
>Another argument that is given often by the 
>politicians and conspicuously supported by the 
>silence of the WRD is that Nepal has released 
>water into the river that has led to 
>unmanageable flow in the river that leads to the 
>failure of the embankment. This, despite the 
>fact that there is no control work in Nepal, the 
>releases from which could cause inundation in 
>the Gangetic Flood Plains. Rabri Devi had 
>Charged Nepal of releasing water into the 
>Bagmati in 2002 that had resulted in washing 
>away of a bus carrying a marriage party. 
>
>However, when it suits politicians, they would 
>cry hoax that a breach has occurred just it had 
>happened in Joginia in Nepal (1991) on the 
>Western Kosi Embankment ï¿½ 3 kilometers down 
>the Bhimnagar Barrage.
>
>The best forewarning of a possible breach or an 
>unusual flood in any area is the one when the 
>civil authorities or the technical staff start 
>moving their families away to safer places. Keep 
>a watch on them and infer accordingly. No other 
>warning is taking worth seriously.
>To expect that CWC or any other institution 
>would issue a warning for a possible breach 
>would be suicidal for them.
>
>Dinesh Kumar Mishra
>Convenor ï¿½ Barh Mukti Abhiyan
>Road No-6 Rajiv Nagar
>Patna 800024
>Bihar, India
>Mob: +919431303360
>29th August 2007
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>WaterWatch at yahoogroups.com:
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>>  There is 1 message in this issue.
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>Topics in this digest:
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>1. Did Govt's flood forecasting & embankments help?   
>     From: mediavigil at yahoo.co.in
>
>
>Message
>________________________________________________________________________
>
>1. Did Govt's flood forecasting & embankments help?
>     Posted by: "mediavigil at yahoo.co.in" mediavigil at yahoo.co.in povertyfree77
>     Date: Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:02 am ((PDT))
>
>Did Govt's flood forecasting & embankments help?
>
>Flood forecasting has been recognized as one of 
>the most important, reliable and cost-effective 
>non-structural measures for flood management.
>
>Central Water Commission, Ministry of Water 
>Resources has set up a network of forecasting 
>stations covering all important flood prone 
>interstate rivers.
>
>The forecasts issued by these stations are used 
>to alert the Public and to enable the 
>administrative and engineering agencies of the 
>States/UT's to take appropriate measures.
>
>Central Water Commission started 
>flood-forecasting services in 1958 with the 
>setting up of its first forecasting station on 
>Yamuna at Delhi Railway Bridge.
>
>The website of Ministry of Water Resources 
>claims that it has at present a vast network of 
>945 hydrological observation stations and issues 
>level forecast for 145 sites and inflow 
>forecasts of 28 dam barrage sites located on 
>main rivers.
>
>It also says that "The web site provides latest 
>forecasts issued by the divisions of CWC." but 
>if one visits it one only find one message: 
>"The page cannot be found".
>
>Hundreds of people are reported to have lost 
>their lives and many more lost everything they 
>owned when the waters rose in North Bihar.
>
>For people across 300 villages in Koshi, flood 
>and waterlogging is a yearlong problems because 
>the very embankments that are meant to stop the 
>flood have stopped it for good letting water 
>stagnate.
>
>General feeling is that it is the contractors, 
>politicians and bureaucrats who stand to gain 
>from the projects set up to build and maintain 
>these embankments. Over several decades 
>thousands of kilometers of embankments have been 
>built but flood prone areas in have more than 
>doubled.
>
>Victims of flood do not have any voice in whose 
>name newer and bigger embankments are being 
>built.
>
>
>
>
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