[Assam] Engineering interventions for flood control

Thu Sep 11 01:18:51 PDT 2008

I do not wish to comment on the debate on Dredging but wish to reserve
my comment on the tone and language of the communication below.

I would like to remind that diplomatic and polite language could be used
as effective a means of communication as any other to convey the
writer's views howsoever strong they could be. 

Lastly any engineering solution to a problem can be applied to achieve
the desired results, based on the economy and the time line. One has to
decide which one is the most suitable under the given circumstances and
constraints of time and resources.

Thanks
Hemen N Choudhary
Mumbai

-----Original Message-----
From: Chan Mahanta [mailto:cmahanta at charter.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 7:16 PM
To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] Engineering interventions for flood control

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/