‘Govt hasn’t learnt lessons from September floods’

Following incessant rains last weekend, water level in Jhelum abruptly rose above danger mark, posing imminent flood threat to habitations on both sides of its embankments.

While anger among people is brewing against the government for “failing” to augment flood defense mechanism in the past six months, officials said the Assembly elections held last year in Kashmir coupled with heavy snowfall and rains hampered measures to strengthen embankments and undertake dredging in Jhelum.

Incessant rains in September last year led to abrupt rise in water levels of Jhelum, submerging habitations on both sides of its embankments. The water level in Jhelum broke all records crossing 33-feet at Sangam in Anantnag and 23-feet at Ram MunshiBagh.

Due to the deluge, tons of silt from mountainous catchments settled in the river drastically affecting its carrying capacity and hydrological system. Besides major stretches of embankments of Jhelum from south to north Kashmir were severely damaged in the floods.

Dr Altaf Hussain, a civil society member, said authorities have not learnt lessons from last year’s floods.

“The Irrigation and Flood Control department has not effectively and professionally plugged the breaches on Jhelum embankments created by floods last year. It has wasted last six months thinking that floods would not hit Kashmir again and now the rising water level in the river caught them unaware at the cost of life and property of people living in surrounding areas,” he said.

“Ironically, despite threat of floods, there seems no urgency among officials to prevent the situation from escalation. They have adopted a wait and watch policy. This is criminal negligence and civil society will raise its voice against it in all forums,” Dr Altaf added.

“Kashmir faces high risk of floods this year also as Jhelum and its flood spill channels have lost drainage capacity and velocity due to floods last year,” Prof Shakil Romshoo, Head, Department of Earth Sciences, Kashmir University told .

Romshoo who conducted extensive studies on Jhelum said after the floods in 1959, government had promptly dredged the river to sustain its carrying capacity. “Winter is the best time to undertake dredging as the river has low water levels. However, the authorities could not conduct large-scale dredging. With start of next hydrological year from April, it is difficult to undertake dredging in the river as water level will constantly rise with melting of snow,” Romshoo said.

“Tons of silt has accumulated in the Jhelum during floods affecting its drainage capacity and velocity. With rising temperature, snow has also started to melt raising water level in Jhelum. In these circumstances, there is high risk of floods this year in the Valley,” he added.

Originating from Verinag, Jhelum spans over 175 sqkms from south to north Kashmir. It is joined by four streams, Sundran, Brang, Arapath and Lidder in Islamabad (Anantnag) district. Besides, small streams like Veshara and Rambiara also feed the river with fresh waters. The river settles in Wularlake before flowing to Pakistan administered Kashmir through Baramulla district.

Jhelum has a capacity of 35,000 cusecs and the flood spill channel of the river has a capacity of between 12,000 and 15,000 cusecs. On September 7, nearly one lakh cusecs of water entered Srinagar city.

AijazRasool a noted hydraulic engineer said due to floods, Jhelum has lost about 50 percent of its carrying capacity.

“Wularlake situated at the head of the Jhelum hydraulic regime, used to serve as a sponge to absorb and store flood waters. But it has also lost its volumetric capacity due to sediment load during floods adversely affecting its hydrographic features and functions. As a consequence, any further precipitation in form of rains or snow in the contributory catchment area of Jhelum, is bound to create a flashflood-like situation in the river,” he said.

The problem has been compounded by damaged and weak embankments of the river at nearly 80 spots from south Kashmir to north Kashmir. “The temporary restoration of flood breaches has rendered weak spots in the embankments. Lack of permanent restorative measures continues to pose danger of washing away of these embankments and flooding of habituated areas in any future flash flood situation,” Aijaz said.

Elaborating, he said, the ground water table in areas which remained under flood waters for weeks together continues to be high.

“Soil is still saturated and spells of rain and snow continue to provide fresh recharge. The silted Jhelum and waterways having lost their carriage capacity due to siltation,” he said.

Experts said a comprehensive Flood Management Action Plan needs to be devised on priority for entire hydraulic regime of river Jhelum and other waterways.

“The Action Plan should be aimed at restoring the hydraulic parameters especially the gradients of flow to bring them back to such limits as may safely contain any future floods. This would essentially require a long term programme of dredging of the River and other Waterways to the extent of techno-economic feasibility as well as strengthening of dykes and bunds of the river and waterways in vulnerable reaches,” Aijaz said.

He said the low lying flood absorption basins earmarked in revenue records along the river regime need to be effectively managed and kept free from encroachments.

“A complete reappraisal needs to be carried out for the ongoing projects related to Jhelum or its Catchment Area Treatment from the point of view of flood control aspects. The completed parts of such projects need to be assessed for their Impacts and interim reliefs that may have accrued so far,” he added.

A senior government official, wishing anonymity, said elections after floods hampered restoration works in Jhelum.

“Whole administration got busy in making preparations for elections and this severely affected post flood works in Jhelum,” he said.

Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control, JavidJaffar said in last six months, the department has taken various initiatives to increase carrying capacity of Jhelum and strengthen its embankments.

“Despite all odds including inclement weather, our officers have been working hard to increase carrying capacity of Jhelum and strengthen weak embankments in vulnerable areas by construction of gabion wall. Incessant rains during last few days increased water levels in Jhelum, but the good thing is that till now the newly constructed bunds are intact. It takes years together for new bunds to settle. As of now water level in the river is decreasing. However, in case of increased precipitation like in September last year, there is probability of flash floods particularly in low lying areas.,” Jaffar said.

In December last year, the Government of India has gave its green signal to the Jammu and Kashmir government to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for construction of alternate flood spill channel to save Kashmir from floods in future.

The 80-km Dogripora channel is proposed to be constructed from Awantipora in south Kashmir to Wularlake in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district. Preliminary survey states that this channel can have capacity to discharge around 55,000 cusecs of waters during floods. After de-siltation, the main Jhelum river can cater to 45,000 cusecs and the spill channel upto 15,000 cusecs.

“The Dogripora-Wullar spill channel is the permanent solution to save Kashmir from floods in future. We will start work on preparation of Detailed Project Report on the channel as soon as we receive funds for preparation of the DPR. Simultaneously we will executive Jhelum conservation plan to increase carrying capacity of the river and its flood channels,” Jaffar said.

A study titled ‘A satellite-based rapid assessment on floods in Jammu & Kashmir–September, 2014’ conducted jointly by the Department of Environment & Remote Sensing (DERS) and ISRO revealed that recent floods inundated 557 sq km of Kashmir Valley and affected 22 lakh people.

The study had recommended immediate de-siltation of lakes, revival of flood basin of Khushalsar, Gilsar, Anchar, Hokharsar, Shalabugh, Haigam, preparing a flood zonation map, construction of an alternate flood channel from Sangam, Kandizal to Wular and regular dredging of rivers to meet the possible future scenarios.