By Prabhjot Singh | Opinion |
They say rain is a necessary evil. You cannot survive without it as your entire economy is dependent upon it. And when it comes, it makes your survival difficult. If the rains and subsequent floods are becoming increasingly devastating, both people and governments are responsible for it.
Rains are natural but not all floods. Some are man made.
Rains are a major weapon in the armory of nature. And whenever nature retaliates, it, at times, uses rain to send down a message. This time, too, nature has reminded mankind of its might besides cautioning it against exceeding its limits.
A careful analysis of the extent of damage caused by floods has been more in areas where the courses of natural water channels were changed to meet the growing needs of human habitation. Rivers in spate forced their way to their original courses while wreaking havoc on their changed courses. For example, if Beas became devastating in parts of Himachal Pradesh, it was primarily because of its science induced changed course.
Punjab is an agrarian economy where farmers pray for a good monsoon. Depleting water table and thinning water line of natural rivers have been forcing the cultivators to depend upon tube wells for meeting their irrigation requirements. Since the focus has moved from canal or river irrigation to tube well irrigation, maintenance of natural water channels is not getting the attention it deserves. As a result, they are getting choked, silted and covered with thick vegetation thus reducing their carrying capacity year by year.
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For decades together, there used to be an annual exercise a couple of weeks before the start of Southwest Monsoon. It used to be part of the Flood Control measures where the State Irrigation Department would alert the district administrations about the impending rains. Flood control machinery at district headquarters would be put in active mode. Since each district was given boats for flood relief measures, the District Magistrate or his nominee would get these boats checked, repaired and make them operational.
Emergency relief measures would be rehearsed. Simultaneously, the drainage department would get busy in clearing the water channels of their silt and vegetation so that flow of rainwater was not obstructed. The Irrigation department, as a part of its routine exercise, would undertake strengthening of “dhussi bundhs” with earth filling and sandbags to prevent overflow from rivers.
But of late, this traditional exercise was almost discontinued as “wasteful”. Emergency boats usually stacked outside offices of Deputy Commissioners were rendered “useless” for lack of upkeep and maintenance.
Repair of damaged water channels, too, have not been getting the attention they deserved. Even the State level flood prevention meetings have either been discontinued or mere formalities are met.
It is why the authorities, both at State and district levels are caught unawares soon after southwest Monsoon picks its vigor. Villages, towns and cities get flooded and the rescue and relief operations start without ever fixing responsibility as to why a particular area or locality has been flooded more. Most of these floods are man made.
I still remember I had written a piece in the Sunday Tribune after devastating floods raved Punjab and the State machinery was caught napping. Excuse given was that most of the senior officers were on holiday because rains plundered the State on a weekend.
Even after 30 years, the State has not learnt its lessons. The State may have claims on its engineering and technology marvels. But when it comes to the might of nature, those marvels, including reclamation of natural water channels, take no time to vanish leaving behind a tale of destruction.
Same is true of Chandigarh. Flooding and damage are more in areas that have been reclaimed from erstwhile chaos and other natural water channels.
It is time for the governments and the administrations to have a relook at their policies and plans, especially those related to flood protection and people welfare measures, that are in conflict with nature. Go green, stay clean and do not finger nature should be the slogan that can minimize the damage of furious Monsoons.
(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)
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