Editorial|Perennial Flood Nightmare

Last week the entire valley including the capital city of Srinagar was once again on “Flood Alert”! Just a couple of days of very heavy rain had dangerously swollen the River Jhelum. Since the century’s disastrous flood of 2014, Kashmir in last four years has experienced many near flood situations with just a short rainfall lasting a mere couple of days or so. The main reason is the criminal negligence of the rulers in last five years. Even though a detailed flood prevention plan has been worked out yet it has still to be implemented. According to news reports, the State Administrative Council has just approved anRs 5,411 crore flood mitigation plan. What an irony! It has taken government four years or so more to just approve the plan in phases! Unfortunately, the floods will not come in phases.

Interestingly, many projects including some connected with generation of hydro-electric power get prepared at lightening speeds because these give benefits to many people at different levels! At this rate it will take the government 50 years to implement the plan during which period the people may have to face a couple of dozen or so floods! It is nothing but sheer criminal negligence! The most important part of the project is increasing the water carrying capacity of the River and its flood spill over channel. There was also a proposal for creating a second spill over channel. However, the most important aspect is the speed of preparation of different necessary documentations; obtaining the sanctions of the competent authorities and then implementation, again involving tendering and so on. In the news report it has been stated that source of funding of some parts of the project would be explored. When Nature sends flood it does not go through the various bureaucratic procedures. So if the floods are to be prevented, the cumbersome and lengthy procedures are to be avoided. Often the politicians declare that the requisite measures would be taken on war footing! However, if we go by recent happenings and the predictions of some environmentalists, we have already lost the war!

   

The ideal situation for accelerating the implementation of the flood mitigation plan is to engage some international consortium of companies specializing in flood prevention projects. There are many such international level organizations which have taken up similar projects in South East Asia and in some other countries. The most important and the most urgent aspect of the plan dredging the River and its spill over channel has now been going on at snail’s pace for almost last four years. Nothing substantial seems to have been achieved in view of the recent flood alert! In such circumstances we have only to keep our fingers crossed and pray to God for mercy!

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