Floods caught the govt unprepared

The flood situation in many parts of north India, stretching from Uttarakhand to Bihar through Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh, with the two major rivers, Ganga and Yamuna and their tributaries in spate, is hovering between critical and catastrophic. Hundreds of villages have been inundated, and nearly 200 people have died. It is a rare coincidence that the flood situation in Pakistan and China too has been bad, particularly in Pakistan. The causes remain obscure though many would like to infer that this is one more sign of the climate change crisis. A more plausible reason seems to be that after the near-drought situation of 2009, this year appears to be going through a counter-El Nino phase of a heavy monsoon.

What is puzzling about the flood situation is that the harnessing of rivers through construction of dams has not helped. For example, at the moment, the dam at Tehri in Uttarakhand, is posing a problem as the water in the reservoir has crossed the danger mark. The dam of course is not giving way but water has to be released and this is going to result in widespread inundation. It is the same situation in the Yamuna canals in Haryana. The excess flood waters amounting to hundreds of thousands of cusecs of water have to be released which could pose a problem to low lying areas in and around Delhi.
The harnessing of rivers needs to be examined all over again and solutions have to found in the light of the latest situation. Meteorologists cannot predict yearly situation, but they can look at the statistical patterns which are extremely useful.

The reason that periodic floods — there is a certain statistical pattern to it and it is not as random as it is made out to be — seem to stump the authorities is that not enough is done to update information and to use it to deal with the situation. There is a certain sense of complacency all round that with superior scientific and technological know-how we have mastered much of the challenges posed by natural disasters. The fact is that there is much that still remains unexplored and unexplained about the environment around us, including the weather and river systems.

Politicians and educationists talk about relevant and appropriate local knowledge, but there is no evidence of it in what happens in our universities and research institutions. A modern society needs to constantly update its knowledge and information. It is part of the preparedness of a government.