Floods: Expert wants review of dam management

New Delhi, Sept 8: Blaming the sudden release of water from reservoirs for the devastating floods in Surat city of Gujarat and other areas of the country, noted expert on water resources Himanshu Thakkar has called for a serious and thorough review of the existing dam management and questioned the very usefulness of these structures for protection from floods.

The disastrous flood in Surat was the result of sheer mismanagement by Ukai dam authorities, he told sources.

The authorities waited till the dam was filled up before starting to release water, even though for days they saw it filling up very fast, said Mr Thakkar.

He pointed out that 51 per cent of the dam was already full on July 20, 77.54 per cent on August three and upto the brim on August seven.

Had they released the water on time, the disaster would have been avoided, he said.

Mr Thakkar was of the view that though reservoirs need to store water as protection against the possible failure of monsoon, there should be some norms regarding adequate protection.

''In the case of Ukai, the water in storage before monsoon was much in excess of the needs of Surat,'' said the expert.

''Clearly there are several aspects of dam management that can be put to debate, but this year's flash floods have led to serious doubts about the usefulness of dams for flood-protection,'' he said.

The mismanagement and negligence of managers of the large dams on Krishna, Godavari, Tapi, Narmada, Mahi and Sabarmati rivers have created man made disasters in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, said Mr Thakkar.

Quoting the Central Water Commission figures about the water level in the reservoirs, he said the Girna had 10 per cent storage before the monsoon, while in Mahi basin, 40.69 per cent of the Kadana reservoir was filled up, the Panam up to 19.37 per cent and the Mahi Bajaj up to 28.17 per cent.

The Tawa dam in the Narmada basin was already filled up to 22.58 per cent before the monsoon.

In the Krishna basin, the Koyna dam was filled up to 25.19 per cent, the Narayanpur up to 44.1 per cent, the Srisailam up to 17 per cent, the Khadakvasla up to 12.5 per cent, and the Nagarjunsagar was up to 47.08 per cent.

In the Sabarmati basin, the Dharoi dam was filled up to 42.59 per cent.

These reservoirs should have been emptied before monsoon, he said.

According to Mr Thakkar, there were enough information on rainfall in Surat which suggested that water release in manageable quantities should have started from August. 1. But this was neglected and when water was finally released it was about triple the drainage capacity of the Tapti river. He said the Tapti has a water carrying capacity of four lakh cusecs while from August 7 to August 9 up to 10 to 11 lakh cusecs of water was released and that too on a full moon day, which made the situation worse.

The daily rainfall chart was showing very heavy rains, so the authorities must have been alerted.

He said the government should investigate the high pre-monsoon storages at reservoirs and the downstream release and go in for a thorough review of the dam operation rules.

In east Rajasthan also, it is the dam on Parvati river whose water has played havoc, he said, pointing out that In the Chambal basin, water from four reservoirs was simultaneously released.

However, in Barmer, it is the freak weather because of climate change that caused flood, said Mr Thakkar and questioned the usefulness of the idea of river interlinking in this context.

He said the interlinking of the river was a very unscientific proposal as it failed to take note of the drastic changes taking place in the earth's climate. These changes have been causing freak weather in many parts of the country.

For example, he pointed out that Assam, a rain abundant area this year faced drought and areas deficient in rains like Rajasthan were reeling under flood.

''The objective behind the interlinking of rivers is to divert river water from usually rain abundant areas to those deficient in rains, but the climatic change was making such categorisation meaningless,'' he said.

UNI