Man-made floods

Floods are normally deemed to be natural disasters caused by excessive downpour, but this does not seem to be the story when it comes to the recent inundation of vast tracts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. For these appear to be man-made disasters and not primarily the result of nature's fury, though that too played its part. The floods, in most cases, have been the result of the sudden release of large quantities of water from dams, and their coinciding with heavy rainfall. This is borne out by the blame game that is currently on, with the affected states pointing fingers at neighbouring states for mismanaging reservoirs.

The available data on water storage and releases corroborate these apprehensions. Most of the dams had above-average water levels even before the monsoon season began, and their capacity to absorb fresh rainwater was therefore limited. Besides, inflow in the two-month rainy season that preceded these floods had been copious, giving out unmistakable cues about eventually brimming over. As such, questions are bound to be raised as to why the dam authorities waited till the last moment before releasing water, and that too at a time when torrential rains were already proving to be too much of a handful for drainage systems. The disastrous floods in Surat are a telling case in point. The flood levels that the city witnessed could surely not have been caused by the 12 per cent above-average rainfall that occurred. Submergence of the order that has been witnessed was largely the result of the discharge of much more water from the Ukai dam on the Tapi river, upstream of this diamond industry hub, and not because of the limited drainage capacity of the downstream channel.

Apart from the devastation caused by the floods, the mismanagement of water in the major reservoirs is a scandal for another reason as well. Holding large amounts of water in these dams prior to the monsoon season suggests that the stored water was not put to gainful uses like irrigation and power generation, for which these assets were created with huge investments. Releasing the water in a rush at the monsoon time means that the stored water has gone completely waste, as run-off. This is criminal profligacy with a scarce and precious resource.

All this points also to the lack of a well-conceived flood management and damage mitigation strategy, despite the authorities knowing full well that over 40 million hectares of area supporting about 260 million people is perpetually flood-prone. The annual damage to crops, property and public utilities caused by floods is reckoned officially at Rs 13,760 crore. This is quite apart from the hundreds of human lives and thousands of livestock assets lost every year. What is intriguing is that there is no single authority dealing with this subject. Equally disquieting is the lack of action on curbing the siltation of dams and river beds, which is fast eroding their water- holding capacity. Nor is anything being done to discourage the emergence of dense habitations in the flood-prone areas. To make matters worse, there is hardly any coordination between the reservoir management authorities and the meteorological agencies. It is high time these issues were given the attention they deserve, to prevent recurring economic losses and human inconvenience on account of floods.