How a dam disaster led to urban sprawl

July 12, 1961, had started off like any other day in Pune; a spell of sunshine after a week of rain. The city was functioning smoothly, as always. But, by afternoon, some old parts of the city were submerged under 20 feet of water.

The river Mutha, flowing through the city, had in some places reached as high as 50 feet. The popular Panshet dam, located around 20 miles away, had burst that morning, leading to draining of millions of litres of water onto the streets of Pune.

The dam was the third major undertaking in the past 200 years to provide drinking water to Pune. It began in the 1750s when Nanasaheb Peshwa built a reservoir at Katraj — now more popularly known as Katraj Lake — and an elaborate system of aqueducts which brought water to the city, a topic which I have covered in one of my previous articles. Many houses had wells connected to this system, as also some public tanks or houds. Nana Phadnavis and Raste augmented this system by building wells and reservoirs at Ambegaon (Narhe) and Kondhwa villages. This system provided sufficient water for Pune of the Peshwas, which was all of two square miles even in 1790!

With the advent of British rule and the establishment of the Cantonment areas, this aqueduct started proving to be insufficient. Hence, Lt Col Fife of the British Army proposed damming the river Mutha at Khadakwasla.

Consequently, work began on building a stone-based dam in 1869; the construction was completed by 1879. You can still find mentions of a ‘Lake Fife’ in some old documents and books. 

Fast forward to 1957, and India had been free for a few years. She experienced many new changes in all sectors. New industries had been established on the periphery of Pune, in the towns of Pimpri, Chinchwad, and Hadapsar.

The Second World War had led to industrialisation, and the Partition led to a refugee influx. Adding to it was the growing farmland around Pune, which survived on irrigation. All of these needed water in copious quantities, leading to one more dam in Pune — at Panshet. 

Conceived in 1957, it was slated for completion in 1962. But engineers working on it realised that it could be made operational in 1961 itself by completing some crucial portions in the dry summer — a decision that perhaps led to the disaster as per a study on the event by Gokhale Institute, Pune. The Panshet dam, being mostly built of earth, did not have the typical ‘sluice gate’ structures of a concrete or masonry dam, nor was it as strong. The idea was to get the earthen dam and its gates ready by the time the monsoons arrived. 

In spite of their best efforts, the monsoons set in by June and it poured cats and dogs over the incomplete dam. There were no sluice gates ready to let out the water, and the dam continued filling till it climbed the embankment at the top. It was like a pressure cooker waiting to burst. By July 10, small cracks had appeared, out of which water oozed. The next day saw the administration employing local villagers to put sandbags on the structure in a bid to delay the inevitable. By the same day’s evening, the Army had to be called in for disaster management as the cracks on the dam continued to widen and deepen. For the entire night, soldiers of the Indian Army and the local populace tried their best to prevent a collapse, but with no other way to let the water out safely, all they could do was simply delay the inevitable. 

Still, they managed to fight off the disaster for the night, an act that perhaps saved the lives of thousands of citizens sleeping peacefully merely 20 miles away. Amazingly, even though it had become apparent that the dam was at risk right from the morning of July 10, most of Pune did not find out till the waters had reached their houses!

Early on July 12, the Panshet dam burst, destroying around a 1,000-feet portion of the embankment in the process. The pent up energy of the waters cascaded towards Pune city. By mid-morning, the flood had reached Khadakwasla dam. The nearly century-old structure held for five hours before getting washed away by the surge of water. Entire villages along the river Mutha’s path got destroyed as the river raged towards the city. What people believed to be a normal rise of water due to the monsoons, soon turned out to be a flood that disrupted 15,000 lives! The destruction of the two dams alone was a loss upwards of Rs 5-7 crore. Much more than building a sturdy concrete or masonry dam at Panshet! A study by the Gokhale Institute gives out details of the loss suffered by businesses, traders, workers all the way down to rickshawalas and tongawalas.

The first problem created, ironically, was a water supply shortage. Once again, the long disused Peshwa aqueduct sprang into importance. People living in old houses with wells that could supply drinking water were required to mention it to the government, so as to be able to provide water to others. On a bigger scale, water was obtained from Mulshi dam, a Tata enterprise mainly used for producing electricity. 

The disaster changed the face of the city. The government acquired as much as 200 acres of land — 100 acres from near Parvati hill itself — for building rehabilitation housing societies for the displaced populace. So, on the land that was once upon a time famous as ‘Peshwa’s Hunting Grounds’, sprang up residential projects such as Sahakarnagar and Parvati Darshan. 

Meanwhile, over 100 housing societies were created in other parts of the city. Today, most of these are in the most sought-after localities! The disaster directly influenced the creation of an urban sprawl.

Writer is author of Brahmaputra — Story of Lachit Borphukan