Flood Update VII of 2011 from WIO - 19th September 2011
Ranjan Panda
Flood Update VII from Water Initiatives Odisha
19th September 2011
Dear Friends/Co-sailors,
Between our Sixth Update that we sent on 14th September and this Seventh one, even as flood relief work continues and fresh floods have hit the Baitarani River, the debate on Flood Management has caught up various sections of the state. It’s heartening to note that the key issues that we raised in our First Update are making rounds in several debates, media articles and in other platforms. In fact, WIO too has already participated in several such debates and has been constantly re-emphasising on its points with regard to need of revisiting ‘Rule Curve’ of Hirakud dam, co-ordination with Chhatisgarh and IMD for an integrated basin planning and management; and the very fact that large dams are no success in managing floods. Rather they cause more devastation and hence we need a lot of other time tested interventions to have a proper Disaster Management System in place. Our urge to the state government to revisit the “Model Flood Plain Zoning Bill” has also hit the policy corners and other sections of the state. This we realise from the growing debate on this and the Chief Minister’s intervention to free encroachments from flood plains. We welcome these efforts by the state government. However, we once again urge upon it to look into the matter in a more integrated approach and cover the entire basin and not just one city. We need to re-learn living with floods rather than forcing rivers to live by our rules!
As we write this Update in the morning hours, information available from sources reporting state government figures say that the current floods of the state has affected 4318 villages in 19 districts. 38 people have died so far; at least 16 people are missing, and near to 3.1 million people have been affected by this Mega Flood of 2011. The Chief Minister of the state has ordered extension of Relief Services by another 7 days and the District Collectors have been asked to submit the flood damage report by 20th instead of the earlier fixed date of 25th. This is because a Committee from the Central Govt. may visit the state any day after 20th. Preliminary assessment by state govt. sources put the house damage at 71,297 and crop damage over 2.87 lakh hectares. The state government has urged upon the Centre to provide seeds at concessional rate for the rabi crop as farmers lost stored seeds. Meanwhile, as newspapers report, 33,000 affected people in Kendrapara, Jajpur, Subarnapur and Jharsuguda districts were being given food in 120 relief camps. Over 1,200 boats were deployed for rescue and relief operations, while 2.8 lakh people were evacuated from low-lying areas. The OSDMA website has an update of flood damage and relief work till 16th September, which can be assessed at http://www.osdma.org/Download/Flood_2011Update.pdf
As already informed, we are deliberately keeping the format of this update very simple and user friendly. In this update we have the following sections. The LEAD section refreshes the debate over Dams and Flood control with an article by Prof. Arttabandhu Mishra, Chairperson, Water Initiatives Odisha. Then we introduce an EXPERTSPEAK section where we include an article by Biraja Kabi Satapathy, a Water and Sanitation Expert, who deals with Environmental Health issues during and post flood situations. We also have the regular NEWS sections where we hand pick news from various newspapers for you to get an overview of the flood situation in the state, relief and rehabilitation measures under way and also politics around those. We then provide you with small important statistics in our STATS section that are useful in assessing the current situation of reservoirs, rainfall, etc. Finally, in the MET SPEAKS section, we highlight some of the key weather forecasts that may affect the flood conditions and relief-rehabilitation oprerations.
Once again, we would like to inform you that, at the moment, it’s occasional and we may come up with these updates as and when we can, given our limited manpower and resources. However, with your inputs and support, we are sure; we shall be able to ensure regular flow of this update.
We request you to send in your reports of activities, your views; and any other interesting and relevant article, books, photographs, and anything that you feel we should cover in this Update. It’s YOU who is the most important FUEL of this effort.
Before we stop to pen, we would like to inform you that this update is also available at:
http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/2011/09/flood-update-vii-of-2011-from-wio-19th.html
and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/65467842/Flood-Update-VII-From-WIO-19th-September-2011
Look forward to listen from you and your continued support.
Thanks and regards,
Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha
STOP PRESS: At 9.00 hours on 19.09.2011, Reservoir Level of Hirakud was 629.25 and 11 Sluice Gates were open. 1,89,955 cusecs was inflow and 2,02,664 cusecs was the outflow. From 17th Sept morning to 18th Sept morning, the average rainfall at Hirakud upstreams was 16.10 mm, and at downstreams it was 13.88 mm.
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Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two decades now.