Even though different governments have been planning for years together to prevent floods or to minimize damages in such eventualities but it appears that some sort of complacence has crept, may be  because there was no major flood for a long time now! Our major rivers flowing through the state continue to get silted and at places the river bed is menacingly visible. There was a plan to re-introduce river transport that could make us achieve three-fold objective of increasing the water carrying capacity of these rivers, facilitating movement of mechanized boats through these with consequential benefit of decongestion of roads; unfortunately the fate of the project is unknown till date and perhaps stands consigned to records and the press note files of the Department of Information and Public Relations! Now we don’t find even the routine work of the annual strengthening of river bunds. The people too have grown indifferent to the potential flood threats that are looming large and they usually fail to agitate such issues effectively. Instead we find unscrupulous elements making encroachments over water bodies. At places the encroachments pose a serious challenge to the authorities that are in charge of water bodies. At a time when climate change is happening and we need the combined efforts of measuring what's happening with efforts to prevent it, we are not seen doing anything about it. The tragedy that struck Leh should serve as an eye opener to the state government as the freak weather conditions can wreak havoc with our places at much bigger scale than was witnessed there. Freak weather conditions can strike anywhere and anytime; this is the loud and clear message that the incident blares out. In fact there was a forewarning in the shape of floods in Leh and elsewhere in the cold desert region that ravaged some residential areas and agriculture lands only some two years ago. But then the local authorities did not think of planning for future and the nature took its toll. Neither the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council nor the state government has done anything so far to draw a lesson from the earlier floods. With the result the entire populations in the twin districts of Leh and Kargil, as also habitations elsewhere in the state, situated on slopes continue to live on the fatal edge and at risk of getting devastated by flash floods, snowstorms, avalanches, land slips and slides. Well we have an avalanche forewarning system and weather forecasting mechanism in place that help us to caution people of possible catastrophes or rough weather conditions that they would be confronted with in a particular time period. But we have not taken any of the preventive measures on the ground in the shape of relocating the habitations at high risk to safer places or turning these habitations safer by raising structures that could afford some protection to these habitations.  Coming back to the issue of preventing floods, minimizing damages caused by these we need to give immediate attention to the de-silting of the water bodies including the rivers, their tributaries and even rivulets and irrigation canals to improve their carrying capacity. The river bunds that are in bad shape at places should get due attention so that these do not breach with the rise in water level. As of now Leh is receiving due attention from Srinagar and Delhi but with the passage of time the problem of vulnerability of the places to such shocking catastrophes may get ignored.  We see no activity in Kupwara where different Nullahs are in spate and have inundated many areas as if there is no government in place. We have several  Nullahs in the state that are generally seen dry for most of the period of time in a year but turn ferocious once there are torrential rains as the storm waters from catchment areas get drained through these.  Almost all the districts in the valley have one or a couple of Nullahs passing through. Unfortunately not much attention is given to flood protection works.  We need to have thorough examination and study of the rivers and water bodies so that a comprehensive plan is drawn to prevent losses to life and property. Similarly we need to have studies carried out on the glaciers that are receding at an alarming rate and are potential threat to life and property. We need to have a comprehensive Disaster Management Plan for each district, division and state as a whole to protect life and property.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST