Fwd: Bihar Floods of 2007 - 2
shyam dayal singh
Bihar Floods of 2007 – 2
Dinesh Kumar Mishra
This year's flood in North Bihar broke many previous records. Continuous rains between 1st July to 2nd August in Bihar plains, Terai area of Nepal and the lower Himalayas brought life to a standstill for a very long time, the impact of which is felt still. It rained three to four times more than the average for weeks together and districts like Samastipur, West Champaran and Khagaria was virtually cut off from rest of the world for a considerable period. Elderly people of the area suggest that they had never seen so much of rain in their life nor had they experienced such a prolonged stagnation of rainwater.
Surprisingly, with so much of rains and rainy days and the accompanying losses due to floods, no major river of North Bihar touched the recorded highest flood level HFL. The memorandum sent by the Government of Bihar GoB to the Government of India GoI for seeking assistance for flood relief confirms this fact. The HFL of the Bagmati at Sonakhan is recorded as 70.77 meters but it could reach only 69.75 meters this year. The Burhi Gandak, which remained stagnated above the danger level for weeks together this year, did not touch its record level of 46.35 meters at Rosera. The Kamla-Balan could touch 53.60 meters level at Jhanjharpur Rail Bridge against the HFL of 54.34 meters. The Bhutahi Balan, which played havoc in and around Phulparas in the Madhubani district many times this year, did not touch the record level of 72.10 meters at Ekamma siphon and flowed to a maximum level of 70.30 meters. The Lalbakeya attained a level of 72.42 meters at Gowabari against the HFL of 72.84 meters. The Ganga has an HFL of 50.27 meters at Gandhighat but the observed maximum this year was only 48.15 meters. The Punpun flowed 80 centimeters below the HFL of 53.91 meters at Sripalpur. The Kosi, at Basua, was seen to be flowing at 48.01 meters against the HFL of 48.76 meters. The Gandak followed the suit and its level did not exceed 95.80 meters against an HFL of 96.85 meters at Khadda.
If the maximum level of all these rivers was much below the HFL, one would expect that the damages caused by the floods would be less but that was not to happen. The obvious explanation that comes to one's mind for this anomaly is that there were large number of breaches in the embankments, canals, roads and railway lines that led to moderation of flood and its levels and drainage congestion prevented the moderated floodwaters from escaping. The result was prolonged stagnation of water and nearly 25 million flood victims watched helplessly their dwellings and crops being washed away.
Water Resources Department WRD of GoB has constructed 3430 kilometers long embankments along Bihar rivers through which it intends to protect its 29 out of 69 lakh hectare of flood prone area. These structures, on which the GoB had so much faith as a barrier between the people and the river, breached at 32 places before a call of help was given to the GoI on the 28 th August through the memorandum. There were 7 breaches in the Bagmati embankments, 14 in the Kamla-Balan embankments, 5 in the Burhi Gandak, 3 in the Masan embankments and one each in the Bhutahi Balan, Khiroi and the Kosi (Badla-Nagarpara). Any lay person in the flood hit area of Bihar can tell that the embankment looses its meaning downstream of the breach point. He can also tell that the bed level of the river within the embankments has risen quite high leading to its reduced water carrying capacity and waterlogging in the protected countryside. The people living within the two embankments of the river are always at the mercy of God as the Government does not recognize their existence.
What is left of the newly constructed embankments on the Bagmati between Runnisaidpur and Dharampur will be known only after the stock is taken once normalcy is restored but efforts are on to redo these embankments. This Rs 792 Crores project was started early this year to embank the hitherto untouched middle portion of the river. Some 10 kilometers length of the same was constructed before the rains and whatever was constructed, got washed away in floods.
The GoB is reported to have sanctioned a sum of Rs. 78 Crores to raise and strengthen the Kamla-Balan embankments. Kamla-Balan embankments have a history typical to embanking technology. The river was embanked between Jainagar to Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district of Bihar during 1956-60. These were further extended up to Darjia in 1962 and since 1965 flood season, these embankments are faithfully breaching every year. At times, people cut these embankments to drain the stagnated water outside the embankments. In the floods of 1966, there was turmoil in Bihar Vidhan Sabha over massive breaches in these embankments. Members like Suraj Narain Singh, Harishchandra Jha and Baidyanath Mehta snubbed the Government over the performance of the embankments and even suggested that either the embankments should be removed or the people should be shot dead. Central Water Commission sent a senior engineer, Moti Ram, on a request made by GoB and he suggested, along with many other things, raising and strengthening of the Kamla embankments. This suggestion came just within three years of completion of the embankment. Nobody asked GoB or the Central Water Commission why weak and low height embankments were constructed in the first place? Since then a caravan of veteran engineers is passing over these embankments making similar suggestions and sometimes the embankments are raised. The river and the embankments, however, refuse to obey them. WRD of GoB has asked for Rs. 522 Crores to repair such embankments in the state.
This is not a huge sum as compared to the total demand of Rs. 8,000 Crores but it would have been better if WRD had done some introspection of its working before making the demand. In 1998, the present Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar was staging a sit-in strike in Darbhanga and his grievance was that the embankments had breached at 125 points in the state causing immense hardship to the people. WRD of Bihar refuted these charges saying that the embankments had breached only at 7-8 places and an equal number have been cut by the anti-social elements and all other breaches are there in the Zamindari and Maharaji embankments for the maintenance of which the WRD is not responsible. The press release of the WRD also said that it was responsible only for the flood protected area of 29 lakh hectares in the state and the remaining area over which no protection measures have been taken up, the department cannot be held responsible. He is in power at the moment and if the WRD admits that its embankments have breached at 32 points (as against 8 in 1998) and none of these breaches are Zamindari or Maharaji embankments, it is hoped that the Deputy Chief Minister would remind WRD of its obligations to the people. It is obvious that when an embankment breaches, it surely was meant to protect some land out of those 29 lakh hectares. The GoB should also explain to the flood victims what plans it has to protect the remaining 40 lakh hectares of land of Bihar?
WRD suggest in the memorandum that efforts should be made for the Indo-Nepal Cooperation over the flood issue. This is something that is being said for the past 70 years without any success and it is difficult to make out any meaning of such an assurance. Flood forecasting, afforestation, capacity building and establishment of a Flood Management Institute at Patna has been proposed in the memorandum along with a National Disaster Response Institute in Patna has also been proposed in the request. A totally irrelevant proposal to desilt Bihar Rivers has been also made. It must be reminded here that the proposal to desilt heavily silt laden rivers like the one debauching into the Gangetic plains from Himalayas has been rejected to the extent of ridicule in the Report of the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (1980).That a proposal should come from Bihar is even more astonishing since it had desilted Eastern Kosi Main Canal a couple of years ago. There are hillocks of sand on either side of the canal and most of the slopes of the canal is eroding back into the canal with passage of time. The problem is not in desilting the river if one has the resources, the problem is where to dump the excavated material. The memorandum is curiously silent over the issue.
Similar is the situation with the Dept. of Road Construction. Some 782 kilometers length of roads in the state have almost collapsed with 54 breaches in them. The department has sought for a sum of Rs. 1586 Crores from the Center to bring back the roads in motor able shape. Breach in the road means that the rain water is looking for an opening at that point to pass through, which the department intends to plug solidly. Condition of the rural road is even worse. A length of 3194 kilometers of such roads has been hit by floods with 829 breaches in them and its 1353 bridges and culverts need repairs / replacement. There is a demand of Rs. 512 Crores to meet this requirement. Such demands will never diminish if the state continues to ignore the drainage of water.
However, this year's flood has opened the flood gates of placing additional demands. Vital departments of the state from which people had expectations to protect them against floods are themselves queuing up for relief. One is reminded of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir whom anybody could access for alimony. A villager went to meet him for help and found the emperor praying to the almighty for help. The villager came back without meeting the emperor saying that he should not be expecting anything from a person who himself was begging. Sooner the people of Bihar realize this , the better it is.
Dinesh Kumar Mishra
Convener – Barh Mukti Abhiyan
Road No: 6B, Rajiv Nagar
Patna 800024
Bihar - India
25th November 2007