By Kalyan Dutta-Choudhury Louisiana Once again, Assam is in the grip of a devastating flood and, once again, the Assamese people are clamoring for the miracle to happen – that floods in Assam be declared a national problem and thus have the problem solved once and for all. That’s understandable. But, the clamor will die down along with the receding flood waters. The floods, in addition to causing extensive damage to life and property, would leave a lingering bad taste in the psyche of the Assamese people. Why, they would ask themselves, do they have to suffer so badly again and again every year with no comprehensive plan or thinking in sight to mitigate their prolonged misery?
Flooding is nothing new in Assam – I have experienced its much benign form since my childhood years. Even then,when a severe flood came to our area every four or five years, the flood waters remained along side of the river on the other side of the national highway without affecting our house. Now, every year when the monsoon season starts, flood water comes inundating our house and driving our folks to take shelter on higher grounds. This has become an annual ritual that nobody wants but is forced to go through anyway. They have built a structure especially for that. Soon, that structure would not be adequate for the task. Is building a higher and stronger structure is the solution for us?
It is in the topography and tropical climate of Assam and, consequently, that floods are as old as Assam’s history itself. There is too much rainfall in the region and there are too many rivers and tributaries carrying too much water that is flowing into the region. There is also too much callousness, incompetence and corruption in policy makers and executioners of policies. That’s a dangerous mix.
If we look at the geographical map of Assam in relation to China, Assam sits south of the central region of China. Some of the rivers originate in China and some in the foothills of the Himalayan region. These rivers, whatever their origin, merge into the mighty Brahmaputra which, being the main riverine artery of the region, ultimately flows into the plains of Bangladesh on its way to the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh, an impoverished country in which many mighty rivers originating from the same mother of all sources that is the Himalayas, has a very hard time coping with widespread flooding and misery it creates. That’s their fate. Or is it?
The great earthquake of 1951 changed the intensity of flooding in Assam and its effects on people and livestock. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the mountain tops along with innumerable trees came down the rivers. The floating trees choked the rivers for years. Eventually, the trees rotted and settled down on the river-bottoms constricting the water flows in the rivers. Add to that the massive soil erosion in the banks of the rivers. Sadia was wiped out and Dibrugarh was on verge of being wiped out. But, heroic efforts by the P.W.D. were able to save that important city.
The state government was very cognizant of the floods and actions were taken. A new department called Flood Control and Irrigation was created, many engineers were employed. A dredging ship was procured to dredge up the Brahamputra. It was moored in the Bramaputra behind the Gauhati Medical College premises. A freshly returned engineer from England was put in charge of the dredging operation. Fifteen or twenty miles from Khanapara, a fullfledged flood control office was opened on G.S. Road in Meghalaya. The floods in Assam were soon to be in the past, the message went out. And the people believed so.
What happened to all that? The dredging operation was illconceived in scope and magnitude and was inadequate in the face of the mammoth task at hand. The opening of the flood control office was too ambitious in spite of the financial backing from the central government which had other pressing priorities like national defense, building nuclear bombs, missile development and, later, sending a probe to the moon and many other projects. Add to all this, the great missteps by the state government, the conglomeration of missteps of contractors and engineers who started work on flood prevention on river banks just before the monsoon season started. Add to it rampant corruption and the rest is predictable history.
Let’s go back to the central issue of flood control. Assuming the central government accedes to that demand, what does that declaration achieve in terms of preventing flooding in Assam? I don’t think a declaration without very urgent commitment of resources amounts to anything other than a false sense of hope. Last year, the year before last and the year before last and so on, we have gone through that routine and nothing came out of that. We have been doing that routinely one way or another for decades since independence. Last year during the floods, Bijoya Chakravorty, a minister of state in the union government, was deputed to survey the floods. She made an aerial survey of the floods and made a statement that she would submit a report of floods to the prime minister. That’s government’s way to mollify the long suffering public. This year, there would be no exception. Air Force helicopters would be pressed into service to rescue marooned citizens, drop food and medicine and all that stuff. A dignitary from the central government would make an aerial survey and release a press release following the survey. And this year, it would submit a report to the government. It would be interesting to see from the perspective of public-policy interests what thereports contain and how the reports vary from year to year. Is the same report recycled year after year with changed dates? There is a lot of this song and dance routine in government reports.
As a layman with a working knowledge in science and engineering, I have no technical knowledge of floods and flood control except to know that they have devastating effects on peoples’ lives and property.
Then, why should I need to have any technical knowledge about floods? For more than fifty years, the technical experts and politicians have given us, in the name of flood control, absolutely no flood control and no relief. They are getting worse. As a layman, I understand that floods are due to five factors: More rainfall than normal, Widespread deforestation in the catchment areas, Rise of river beds due to depot of silt, Haphazard flood control projects previously implemented, How much water comes from China and how much could go out through Bangladesh. We have no control over what comes in and what can go out.
I have a simple explanation of floods and how that happens. Imagine a bucket connected to a water faucet and a drain valve which is connected to a long pipe at the bottom. When the faucet is opened, water comes into the bucket which tries to fill up. But the drain keeps emptying the bucket. This is an ideal situation. If the faucet brings in too much water than what drains out, then the bucket would fill up causing an overflow. Now, if you imagine many independent faucets (major rivers into Assam) bringing in water to the leaky and porous bucket (Assam valley with huge rainfall coupled with deforestation) which is connected to clogged drain (Bangladesh), you can see the complexity of whole pictureof flooding situation in Assam. So flooding in Assam is intricately connected with what happening to Bangladeshi rivers and terrain. But, we can’t wait till Bangladesh gets its acts together. The central government has floated so many ideas from time to time. Two important ideas are – first one is linking the major rivers and diverting huge amount of water, and other one is building locks and dams to control water. It is difficult to gauge which one is serious and which one is a farce, which one is feasible and which one is not.
Anyway, a sonar survey of the Bramaputra river, in particular, and other significant rivers, in general, to determine the contour maps of their channels shall be needed. This would be followed by procurement of appropriate dredgers. The dredgers would dredge the Brahmaputra from Dibrugarh to Mankachar and build up the river banks. The same type of operation would be carried out on the other rivers. Many have called for international experts. I don’t think we need that. We need huge amount of money and imaginative thinking and resolve.
Money is not there? Yes, there is money and it would come from same source as other high-value national projects. Mazgaon Docks which builds frigates for the Indian Navy or any other outfit would build the dredgers and loaders. Indian firms don’t have experience in making dredgers? Give them the task and resources and watch what they can do.
Who would take up the cause? As soon as the floods recede, meetings should be held all throughout the state to educate the people about the problem of floods in the state in simple language and not in technical or political rhetoric. Following that, a citizens committee comprising of representatives from all sections of the population – not this party or that party, not this organization or that organization and so on – should be formed to spearhead cause of a sound comprehensive plan to prevent floods in Assam. The committee would gather information from engineering experts in Assam and elsewhere in India to put pressure on the central government to declare an immediate plan. Meanwhile, the Assam state government would be pressured to maintain its credibility with the people by expeditiously executing its current programs on soil erosion, antideforestation etc.
We should forget all past mistakes and finger pointing. The choice for the people of Assam is only one – that choice is immediate and now.
(Pictures by Babul Gogoi, Guwahati)
- Log in to post comments