(The
disastrous flood of 2014 seems to have been forgotten both by the people and
the rulers and a worse disaster may be looming around!)
One had sincerely
expected that the people and the rulers would learn a lesson from the worst
flood of the century which occurred in September, 2014. Even though it did not
result in a major loss of life yet it caused extensive economic losses in terms of property and goods. The material loss was in thousands of
crores and the poshest areas of the capital city of Srinagar were savagely
ravaged. No doubt the flood was a backlash from the River Jhelum and all its
associated water bodies which had been vandalised by the people and the rulers.
Encroachments on the River’s banks and usurpation of the flood basin by the
government in terms of new colonies and establishments had annoyed the River so
much that it stuck with a vengeance.
Most of the experts who
analysed the disaster had observed that the flood was due to extreme vandalisation
of the environment in the catchment areas and usurpation of the flood basin. The
River which gave life to Kashmir has been vandalised and desecrated by us. The
muck and filth of almost entire Kashmir is made to flow into the River. Its
banks have been encroached in most places especially in the city of Srinagar.
For last half a century or so no one has bothered to dredge it and take away
the silt. Over and above everything else its flood basin has been snatched and
converted into colonies. Where else will it go except overflow its banks and
sometimes may even change course. Most of the wetlands and water bodies have
either been filled up or encroached upon. The historical channel Nala-i-Mar has
been filled up and converted into a road. We have hardly left any space for the
extra water to flow in anywhere. In the catchment areas, most of the rain water
would get absorbed but now it runs down straight as we have totally denuded the
catchment area of the River. One cannot rule out sudden disastrous floods in
future especially because of the universal climate change. Reclaiming all the
earlier back-ups to prevent floods may take time. We needed to go for immediate
preventive and protective measures.
After the devastation and displacement caused by the flood,
one would have expected people to remain under shock for a long time. Not only
did they restart massive constructions in the flood affected areas of the city
but violated all building bye laws and norms with the connivance of the
authorities. There has been no chastisement as one would have expected from
such a natural disaster attributed by many to be the “Divine Retribution” for
our misdeeds! The government has been brooding over many schemes for
prevention of floods and protection for the city areas. However, the progress
on ground has been abnormally slow. The most important aspect is the dredging
of the River and its flood spill over channel and strengthening of its
embankments especially in the city of Srinagar a major portion of which was
submerged in the last flood. During the short spell of Governor’s rule, the
dredging operation had been started through some Kolkata based firm. However,
there were some mechanical problems and the progress has been extremely slow as
admitted by the Chief Engineer in charge of Flood Control. If one travels along the Bund in the city or
along the embankments of the flood spill-over channel, nothing substantial
seems to have been done. Instead, the dug up soil is in huge mounds all along
the channel. Just 10 feet of water will spill over the embankments. The worst
is the fate of the flood spill over channel. With the deposition of huge
amounts of silt and wild growth, it is almost on level with the banks
especially in Mehjoor Nagar-Ram Bagh areas. In addition, there has been a spate
of bridge construction creating massive hurdles for free flow of water.
Sometime back, the State Chief Minister had constituted a
committee for initiating immediate flood prevention measures. She is herself
the chairperson of the committee. It is not known whether the concerned
engineers are briefing her regularly of any progress on ground? It will be
worthwhile for her to just take a round of the flood spill over channel just
from Mehjoor Nagar to Ram Bagh Bridge to know the actual ground situation.
Given the will and determination, it is not difficult to execute most of the
flood prevention measures like dredging, strengthening of embankments and
clearing of filled up water bodies on a continuous basis. Usually, in such
important projects there is a special monitoring team of consultants or experts
who monitor the work on a day to day basis. God Almighty has given us again a
grace period till next season. The sooner the government moves at the top, the
better. In the alternative, one has to keep fingers crossed for another
calamity which will, unfortunately be, of our own making! However, it needs to
be emphasised that any dereliction in undertaking these most urgent measures
without wasting any further time amounts to criminal negligence!
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