[Assam] Engineering interventions for flood control

[Chan Mahanta]

The account below points, once again, to the dysfunctional nature of 
government.

Engineering alone, invoked by the dam and embankment proponents, 
cannot  be the be-all and end-all
of SOLUTIONs as is amply illustrated.

Let us agree for a moment that there are situations where dredging 
can alleviate the problem. If so, WHY has it not been done? Not even 
tried. If man can go to the moon, India can launch satellites, why 
can't it dredge a rive?  It is as low tech as it can get. Human 
labour with short-handled hoes and head-baskets can dig and dispose 
of a lot of silt in one dry season.  Has there been a shortage of 
labour? Hoes? Baskets? Funds?

I get it-- it HAS to be done, like Prof. Ranganathan reminds us.

Question is by whom? If it is an answer, why has it not been done? 
What has held all these highly trained civil engineers, civil 
servants that can recite an encyclopedia and cook up EIRs on demand 
and  fine elected  officials of the world's largest democracy back 
from performing such a menial task for all these decades? Surely 
their fellow men have launched satellites in outer space carrying 
them to their pads in bullock-carts, demonstrating their ingenuity 
for all the world to see.

What seems to be the problem in keeping the silted rivers flowing and 
dam reservoir de-silting?  Perhaps our friend Dr. M C George will 
tell us?

Obviously it is a tad bit more complicated, isn't it?

But what? What is it that keeps getting in the way of getting 
ANYTHING done in India?

Doesn't anyone  want to know? Why is there such a huge absence of 
curiosity ? Could it be that it is no secret, but no one knows how to 
overcome it? Or could it be that what we think we know is not the 
cause, merely symptoms?
















2b. Re: Fwd: Missing the river for the dam
     Posted by: "mediavigil at yahoo.co.in" mediavigil at yahoo.co.in mediavigil
     Date: Sat Sep 6, 2008 9:34 pm ((PDT))

Books and reports on misplaced engineering interventions for flood 
control from 1962 to 2007 seem useful only for academic purposes. It 
has not inspired any sane action so far. it is unlikely to do so in 
any foreseeable future.

Reportedly, a high-level Government of Nepal has held India 
responsible for the havoc. Kosi treaty of 1954 between India and 
Nepal makes former responsible for repair and maintenance work and 
operation of the barrage. International rivers merit special 
treatment but
a look at the current reported situation is a sad commentary on South 
Asian hydrocracy in general and Indian hydrocracy in particular.

Bihar government has constituted a technical committee, headed by 
retired engineer-in-chief of the water resource department, Nilendu 
Sanyal, to manage the restoration work and closure of the breach in 
the East Koshi afflux embankment.

Nilendu Sanyal proposes annual desilting of riverbed. Where will he 
throw the silt which which will be excavated from Kosi? Didn't 
Rashtriya Barh Ayog (National Flood Commission) made recommendations 
against it?

Sanyal's past acts of omission and commission must be scrutinized.
There is a need for the performance evaluation of embankments along 
with K L Rao, Kanwar Sain and Sanyal to infer whether or not they 
deserve holy cow treatment.
Is it true that even senior editors like B.G. Verghese advocated 
"Taming the Kosi"? Journalism students should undertake content 
analysis of his writings on floods as well.

The immediate sequence of events is quite revealing. State chief 
state engineer E Satyanarayan, stationed at Birpur near the Nepalese 
border where the Kosi river breached its embankments in August, 2008 
had sent officials like Arun Kumar, responsible for Kosi project four 
desperate warnings between August 9 and 16, cautioning them against 
the imminent disaster, which went unanswered because the officer in 
question was on leave and no substitute for him was made available 
for decision making.

Eventually on August 16, with the situation worsening, the desperate
engineer sent telegrams to 11 senior officials associated with flood
water management in the state capital Patna. These were also ignored
by callous IAS officers of the state. Two days later the Kosi flowed
southward breached the embankment at the point Satyanarayan had
identified as vulnerable.

Who is accountable for this criminal lapse? Who all were liable for
the criminal interventions of the past? There were no answers and
there will be no answers. The Indian "development nation-state" is 
infertile, it cannot deliver any.