[Assam] Engineering interventions for flood control

Wed Sep 10 10:42:30 PDT 2008

There is truth to your observation here Baruah. But I don't think it 
is entirely that. The biggest beneficiaries of cemented solutions 
dumped on Indian victims of floods are not engineers.  It is 
contractors, industrial houses, politicians and (un)civil servants. 
Rarely, if ever, the victims. The engineering gets hijacked from the 
get-go by people  posing as engineers but who long ago lost their 
engineering abilities, even if they began as such. It is the system 
that perpetuates it. They then become the enablers of their 
masters--the politicians and civil servants who dance to the tunes of 
the moneybags.

Not that it is any secret.

But no one seems to want to know why it happens, how it happens and 
how to change it.

Could it be that the intelligentsia has long  accepted the status quo 
as unchangeable? Or that it is inevitable? Or that there could be any 
different from what they have long seen and been subjected to?

>  >In Europe (and to a less extent in North America), there is some 
>second thought about this now.

Yes . Waterwatch  in India too has been started by people who realize 
that.   But it is an elite and tiny
constituency.  Real change will come only when the affected people 
get educated and empowered. As things stand, it is only a distant 
dream.

Best.

m

At 9:53 AM -0400 9/10/08, baruah at bard.edu wrote:
>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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