Flood Fury In Odisha
Despite tall claims of
institutionalisation of disaster management and flood control measurers
Odisha witnessed a severe flood in Mahanadi system, the largest river in
the state, during the last week which has affected 2.2 million people
spread over 19 districts. This flood has caused death of 20 persons, 11
persons have been swept away, 24,000 families rendered homeless, and
crop damage is reported over 1, 48,000 hectares of land. So far 50,000
people have been taken to safer places and close to 1,50,000 people
taken to temporary shelters, out of 3,505 affected villages spread over
93 Blocks and 866 Gram Panchayats. 1109 villages are still marooned and
remain cut off.
The situation in four districts of
Mahanadi delta Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack and Puri is still grim
and so in Sonepur in the lower catchment and the river basin. Even
state Capital Bhubaneswar has not been spared. Few apartments and
villages near Daya River Bridge have been affected and people were
rescued to the nearest buildings.
Despite efforts by government and
non-government agencies people had to spent sleepless nights in
temporary or makeshift shelters and rooftops for a couple of days
together without food, drinking water and medicine. Air dropping of
cooked and dry food started three days after the flood waters entered
the villages. Children and women were the worst sufferers. Reports of
cold fever and the water-borne diseases have started coming in.
Though, flood waters have started
receding in many areas, because of the full moon on 12th September and
due to strong tidal waves and swelling sea water discharge to the Bay of
Bengal was tardy. The situation further worsened following temporary
breaches over river embankments in at least 48 places (35 in Mahanadi,
10 in Brahmani and 3 in Baitarani) for which new areas came in the grip
of floods. Many of the deployed 911 boats and rescue teams could not
reach to people in time.
A number of villages in Kanas,
Satyabadi, GOP and Nimapara areas of Puri district, Marsaghai,
Mahakalpada of Kendrapara, Kujanga and Tirtola area of Jagatsinghpur and
Banki of Cuttack and Sonepur district headquarters are still water
logged.
The focus has now been shifted to
restore roads and communication facilities, ensuring relief works and
providing health facilities.
Though the recent flood in Odisha
caused due to releasing of flood waters from Hirakud reservoir by
opening its spillway gates from 6th September—initially 10 gates were
opened when the storage was 625.60ft then 59 gates on 9th and 10th
September which played havoc in Sambalpur, Sonepur and Boudh besides
Mahandi delta in Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara. But most
surprisingly it also had devastat effects in Bargarh and Jharsuguda
non-flood prone areas in upstream. Generally excessive rain in
Chhattisgarh and resultant inflow of water is blamed for overflowing of
Hirakud but major rivers and tributaries like Tel, IB and Bhedan rivers
also contributed substantially to Mahandi floods.
While speaking to this correspondent
Pranab Chaudhury of Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in
India, said, “Not only rivers and tributaries in lower catchment of
Hirakud contributed to floods, government’s embankment management policy
in deltaic region also responsible for this. On the plea of
preparedness and repair government is draining money, in 2002 where the
total relief caused was Rs 1200-1300 crore for repair of embankment
government had spent at least 30 crore more in the same year then what
was the need?”
All this happened following the
continuous unprecedented rain and flash floods in upper stream of
Mahandi River and catchment area Hirakud Dam in Chhattisgarh. “The
present situation is largely due to mismanagement of Hirakud storage
facilities”, says an expert.
Just a fortnight ago drought
engulfed almost fifty per cent of the state and the news of farmers’
suicide were much in the news headlines. Apart from these, People of
Western Odisha were up in arms over a hydro-power project proposed near
Sindhol village in Sonepur district. Though this plant was planned
ostensibly to augment the energy needs of the state in reality people in
Western Odisha put up a brave face on the project, which refrained the
government from retrieveing decision for time being. For them it was a
conspiracy to facilitate another Hirakud like big dam for which they
have been suffering since 1950s. Of which, both ruling and opposition
parties were making charges and counter charges in the monsoon session
of the state assembly held during 17th to 27th August blaming each other
for the unrest in Western Odisha.
Hirakud Dam known as the largest
earthen built dam in Asia with 25.8 km length and build up area of 743
square km was constructed with an estimated sum of Rs 100.02 crore
foundation stone of which was laid on March 15, 1946 and was dedicated
to nation by first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru on January
13, 1957 with an objective of flood control in Mahanadi Basin besides
other priorities like power generation and irrigation etc. It took at
least 10 years to build the dam.
“Another aspect of the recent flood
in Odisha is—among our engineering fraternity there is a bias for large
dams and large irrigation projects. That may be a reason why our
political administration is trying to shift its blame onto some
engineers,” says Tapan Padhi of Odisha Water Forum (OWF). “While we had
capacity of releasing 17 lakh cusec of water then, how 13 lakh cusec of
water caused overflowing, leakages and breaches?” he further.
According to Bimal Prasad Pandia, a
water policy analyst, “After just three years of the rigged flood in
2008, we are again forced to suffer a flood this year. Like the 2008
flood, this flood too is an outcome of complete neglect to Hirakud dam
safety, a grossly flawed dam management policy, a dreadful ‘Rule Curve’
and a senseless ignorance to rain forecasts.” Mr Pandia further added,
“There is another similarity to the 2008 flood. Both floods occurred in
September and while rain started pouring, the dam had a water level
beyond 625 ft. During both times when rain occurred in the down-streams
of Hirakud, the gates were shut. Further water accumulated in the
Hirakud reservoir. When rainfall gradually moved west-wards, into the
catchments of the reservoir, the reservoir was already exhausting all
its water holding capacity. Both times, the dam gravely played with the
safety of the dam and released water in desperation. Both time the
department tried to convince us that it only followed the ‘Rule Curve’.
But we fail to be convinced on both occasions. I suspect the figures and
statistics relating to dam water level, inflow and discharge. First
hand information cannot go wrong. And such information clearly indicates
that the discharge is definitely more than what is being told dam. The
government owes us an explanation.”
“59 out of the 64 spillway
gates of the dam have been opened to release 9, 74,373 cusecs of water.
10, 37,000 cusec of water is entering into the reservoir. Almost all the
districts downstream have been hugely impacted by this. In districts
like Sambalpur, areas which had not seen floods even in 2008 have been
inundated with flood waters. The dam management authority kept watching
for this situation to come even as the water in the reservoir kept
increasing steadily from July 20”, alleges Ranjan Panda of Water
Initiatives Odisha.
Mr Panda, added: “Now the government
puts the responsibility of the flood on the heavy rain at the upper
catchment and release of water from Chhattisgarh. However, daily and
weekly predictions by the IMD were continuously warning of heavy spells.
It proves that the dam management authority has not been following a
co-ordinate approach with Chhattisgarh and IMD. We at WIO have demanded
that the government of Odisha establishes proper communication and
clearly defined co-ordinate action with Chhattisgarh on management and
planning of Mahanadi river. The government must, without any further
delay, enter into a legally binding ‘water management and basin planning
treaty’ that will help in management of Mahanadi water throughout the
year.”
Further, Odisha Water Forum and
Baitarani Initiative has tried to analyse the ‘Rule Curve’-based
reservoir operation of Hirakud to see whether the violations in rule
curve prescriptions add to flood severity and woes, or the ‘Rule Curve’
itself needs modification with changing circumstances and situations in
the dam’s catchment and the reservoir capacity. Based on a rapid
analysis of rainfall, runoff, siltation, reservoir level data over about
50 years (1957-2009) and this flood’s daily observations along with
post-Hirakud water-resources development trends in Chhattisgarh, which
contributes to 85 per cent of dam’s catchment, there is a need to
revisit the ‘Rule Curve’ developed in 1988 to make it more adaptive to
changing climatic and development context and also the need of exploring
a formal arrangement with Chhattisgarh over management of water and
water information on Mahanadi basin.
By Sudarshan Chhotoray From Bhubaneswar
http://udayindia.in/2011/10/01/flood-fury-in-odisha/
No comments:
Post a Comment