[Assam] Engineering interventions for flood control

[baruah at bard.edu]

Dear Mahanta,

There may be a silver lining to in this simple-mindedness.  As a  
non-technical person reading about situations that bring engineers and  
water together -- in Assam and elsewhere --  the thing that strikes me  
is the engineers tend like cement too much.  They always think cement  
is the solution. In Europe (and to a less extent in North America),  
there is some second thought about this now.

May be dredging is the beginning of new thinking!

Good wishes,

SB



Quoting Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net>:

> It is simple-minded and knee-jerk reactions from people who are
> expected to be more thoughtful that gives them a bad name.
>
>
>
>> If dredging is the solution as our IIT educated and US trained
>> architect C-da says, and if it is low-tech -- then why not?
>
>
>
> **** I did not say "--dredging is the solution " as anyone who
> understands grade school English ought to know. It has to be a
> solution in some instances.  And it is a must in instances where
> dams, barrages or embankments were built with the assumption that
> silting would not happen or sluices and safety release devices are
> not clogged up by silting.
>
> And if it has not been done, then the citizenry must get to the
> bottom of why it has been so and help rectify it.  If they don't it
> won't be done either by some superior powers that watch over them or
> by  the gods.
>
> Under the circumstances, for society's movers and shakers to bemoan
> an absence of accountability on one hand and promoting the same
> dysfunctional and destructive undertakings as their solutions of
> choice tells us what?
>
> Is it a serious and sincere effort to find solutions?
>
> cm
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Umesh
>>
>> -----
>>
>> C-da wrote:
>>
>> 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?
>>
>>
>>
>> Umesh Sharma
>>
>> Washington D.C.
>>
>> 1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
>>
>> Ed.M. - International Education Policy
>> Harvard Graduate School of Education,
>> Harvard University,
>> Class of 2005
>>
>> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
>>
>> http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
>> http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
>>
>>
>>
>> http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
>
>
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