Flood embankments of Bihar: a scandal of Bihar politics and economy or solution?

Flood embankments of Bihar: a scandal of Bihar politics and economy or solution?

New Delhi: during the peak of the flood season in Bihar, when almost half a million people in the state are going through prolonged misery, it should normally be time to contribute to relief efforts and not quibble over policies. And yet what better time to highlight reasons why floods in Bihar, unavoidable as they are, could be made more bearable. At least, as bearable as they were in the pre-British times!

The 2008 breach in the Kosi embankment in Nepal traumatized Bihar to the extent that we are now unable to think about the flood problem in a rational manner. During the flood season, we run helter skelter in the name of scientific disaster management, and in the off season, we simply do not want to think about it afresh, except for mechanically reinforcing the embankments. The question is – will Bihar floods forever continue to attract too much vested interest, just as they did in the British times? Right till Bihar creates a network of Chinese walls all over its countryside?

Some likely answers to this came during a seminar titled ‘Dying Rivers, Living Rivers’ at the India International Centre in Delhi. Dinesh Mishra, a structural engineer from IIT Kharagpur and a veteran river researcher reminded the audience of things he has been saying for years.  His main points go as follows:

1. in Bihar, two and a half days of floods have been turned into a two-and-a-half-month-long affair so that the politics over relief continues.
2. Solutions to tackle the recurring “man-made” floods lie in a dialogue between the residents of flood-prone plains, the technical fraternity and the government. The solutions must be location specific.
3. If water or floods were the problem, then people could not have lived for centuries in harmony with rivers. But, instead of living with rivers on equal terms, people are now empowering the rivers in the name of taming it, with the more destructive embankments and big dams.
4. Citing examples from Bihar, which has eight major Himalayan rivers and is ravaged by floods every year, Mishra said that studies reveal that people living in the lowlands of Bihar, on an average, suffer for 20 days in a year.
5. For the rest of the year, they have a nice, flood-free life. Women do not have to walk for miles with pitchers on their heads for drinking water. There is enough ground water in their courtyard. But no one takes note of that.
6. In Bihar, residents classify floods into five categories. ‘Barh’ – in which water spills on the embankment, ‘Boah’, – when the rivers swamps large areas, ‘Humma’ – when water half submerges the cattle, ‘saah’- when the flood water churns in ripples; and ‘pralay’ – destruction. People of the state are used to ‘barh’ and ‘boah’; while the other three are rare.
7. As for the issue of flood relief politics, Mishra said that earlier, the king used to disburse relief during inundation to “save his own skin”. Later, the bureaucrats swindled money for relief. Aid has now been a tool to win elections.
8. For centuries, the residents have worshipped the rivers. But the outsiders, especially the British who came there could not adjust to the nature of the Kosi and the Damodar. Hence they became rivers of sorrow because the colonizers and the subsequent government could collect revenue from it.
9. Till 1952, the British rulers and their successors had been creating embankments for commercial purposes so that the river did not come to the villages. That created a need for irrigation and opportunity for revenue. They collected revenue for flood protection too.

10. An estimate by the Bihar government says the eight rivers of the state have breached their embankments 371 times since 1987.

11.The benefits of embankment are very limited. The mud and later concrete embankments put the rivers between two walls, prevented them from spilling sediments on its banks and disturbed the water balance with confinement. Tributaries could not join the main rivers. They either flowed parallel to the main river and flowed back to the countryside dissipating into a network of channels, demanding construction of sluice gates to control the backflow. The premise is that the sluice gates will remain open during rainy season, but then they don’t function and this traps the tributaries

12. Offering solutions, Mishra said the natural drainage of the river should not be disturbed as far as possible. “Rivers are known to flow for benefits; they should not be allowed to stagnate.

Mishra has written volumes probing the origin of the Kosi, Bagmati, Mahananda and Bodhi Balan rivers and man-made floods in them caused by breaches in embankments. Currently writing a book about the origin and flow of the Gandak, Mishra’s work on the Kosi, “Trapped! Between the Devil & Deep Waters: The Story on Bihar’s Kosi River”, remains his seminal investigation.

All the points raised by him deserve serious attention from the Bihari intelligentsia, including engineers and students concerned with the field.

[Courtesy: daijiworld.com]