Srinagar: Last week, Kashmir was on the brink of yet another flood. After just two days of rainfall, Jhelum River swelled, breached its embankments and threatened to inundate the summer capital Srinagar.
As people panicked, scenes of volunteers trying to plug Jhelum breaches with sandbags at several spots laid bare the utter failure of the government to tackle Kashmir’s vulnerability to floods, bringing back haunting memories of 2014 when the Valley was hit by the devastating deluge.
“Had it rained for a few more hours (on June 30) we would have been in midst of another flood,” said Ifthikar Drabu, planning and architecture expert.
Soon after the 2014 disaster, the Center had sanctioned two flood management programmes for the region. But after spending hundreds of crores and almost four years, the situation on the ground has only worsened. The people are now asking what happened to the funds which were meant to mitigate flood vulnerability.
The ‘result-less’ dredging
Kashmir has a long history of floods. The city got drowned for the first time over a century in 2014 when the 175-kilometre long Jhelum, which originates in south Kashmir, and snaking through Srinagar and north Kashmir districts flows across the LoC, swelled after seven days of continuous rainfall.
As rainwater flooded Kashmir, it deposited tones of silt in the river, reducing its capacity to less than existing 25,000 cusecs of water. The water holding capacity of the flood spill channel (FSC) – the only outlet available to mitigate flood discharge bypassing Srinagar – running parallel to the river fell to less than 5,000 cusecs.
The panic-struck government knocked the doors of the Center which sanctioned Rs 399 crore for dredging of Jhelum and for the FSC to increase their capacity to 60,000 cusecs.
Under the ‘comprehensive Flood management Plan on River Jhelum-Phase-I’, a Rs 46-crore contract was allotted to Kolkata-based firm Reach Dredging Limited in 2015. It had to remove 16 lakh metric cubic of silt on two stretches of the river, measuring 20 kilometres, in Srinagar and Baramulla, and the work was to be completed in one year. However, the target was never met. The firm finally left the job in March this year, falling short of the target by three lakh cubic meters.
“Instead of imposing a penalty on the company for years of delay, it was allowed to continue and strangely nobody in the government ever questioned them,” said an official of Kashmir flood control department.
Apart from Jhelum dredging, Rs 144 crore was sanctioned for land acquisition in Srinagar for the widening of FSC. The remaining funding was meant for dredging the channel and strengthening its embankments.
Professor Shakil Romshoo, who has studied the Kashmir flood, said the dredging should have been an annual feature as was the practice till mid-80s when a separate budget was kept for it.
From the 90s onwards, the massive deforestation “aided by state and non-state actors” decreased rainwater absorption capacity of slopes and hills and led to siltation of Jhelum and other water bodies, explained Romshoo, adding that in this scenario, the need was for carrying out dredging on war footings.
As per official records, only Rs 196 crore of the Rs 399 crore has been spent in the past three years. “We are at the job,” chief engineer flood control department Shahnawaz Ahmad asserted without explaining the delay in implementation of the project.
These spendings have, however, come under question. “While the outside company was allotted Jhelum dredging at Rs 289 per metric cube, a local firm hired for dredging the channel got the contract at Rs 800 per metric cube,” the official said.
According to Romshoo, dredging was carried out on political consideration in the areas represented by elected members of ruling parties. “There was no scientific procedure adopted and money exchanged hands to cover inefficiencies,” Romshoo said.
‘Missing’ flood channel
The flood channel would pass through the Hokersar wetland and flood absorption basin on the Srinagar outskirts which have disappeared over the years. While a majority of the portion of the basin has been converted into residential areas along Nowgam-Bemina by-pass, Hokersar stretch of the channel, almost 2.5 kilometres, has gotten completely blocked due to siltation.
There has been no effort from the government to clear the blocked stretch to connect it with downstream portion which would have made the channel fully functional. Due to this official inertia, the entire purpose of spending Rs 141 crore on the channel has been defeated.
‘No lessons learnt’
Drabu believes that dredging wasn’t the only solution and has in fact made Srinagar more vulnerable to floods. “No lessons have been learnt,” he said, adding that unless entire Jhelum is cleared of siltation from Sangam in Anantnag to Wular Lake in Bandipora, the results will not be achieved.
“The chain is as strong as the weakest link,” he said.
Questions are also being asked why dredging was started upstream of the river in Srinagar and not downstream near Wular and outflow channel which would have improved its discharge capacity. The Jhelum empties into Wular before it again flows along its course to cross into the other side of Kashmir.
“You are creating sumps by carrying this dredging upstream of the river. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world,” said Drabu.
The view was shared by a former chief engineer at the flood control department. “Jhelum is widest at the points in Srinagar where the dredging was started. The focus should have been the narrow and weak points both upstream and downstream the river,” he said.
What happened to Rs 1,683 crore project?
Apart from Rs 399 crore, J&K was allocated another flood management project for dredging of the remaining stretch of river body, its widening and acquiring land to mitigate flood threats at “risky points”.
But the government is yet to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for implementation of this Rs 1,684-crore project even four years after it was approved. “The problem is lack of accountability. Everything comes into focus only when a rainfall creates a flood-like situation. But once the situation subsides everything is forgotten,” said the former chief engineer.
It was only last month that the department engaged a Delhi-based company for preparation of the DPR. “We have given it 75 days to complete the job,” said the chief engineer Ahmad.
Mega flood management project shelved?
In 2009, five years before the “disaster of international magnitude” struck the Valley, resulting in death of 300 persons, and flattening hundreds of houses and causing an officially estimated damage of Rs 100,000 crore (one trillion), the state government had submitted a proposal to New Delhi for the construction of an 87-kilometer long flood spill channel from Sangam in Anantnag up to Wular with carrying capacity of 60,000 cusecs of water.
Estimated to cost Rs 22,000 crore, the government had then projected the proposal as a “long-term solution” to flood threats. But the project was given a silent burial. It, however, came into focus again only after a study by J&K’s department of ecology, environment and remote sensing, in collaboration with National Remote Sensing Center, in 2015 cautioned that Kashmir would witness increase in intensity of rainy days by 20% by 2030, resulting in frequent flood like situations.
The Union water ministry had sought a fresh detailed project report from the state on the flood spill channel. But the government hasn’t responded so far. “Only dredging of Jhelum and strengthening of embankments won’t address the flood threat. The need of the hour is a policy on flood management for next 30 years and its faster implementation,” said Romshoo, who has studied Kashmir flood in detail.
‘Unabated encroachment & shrinking water bodies’
Of the original width of Jhelum, only one-fifth of it exists on the ground while the remaining have been encroached upon, an official report revealed last year. This explains why even a less intensity of rainfall creates a flood like situation – the phenomenon which has repeated itself at least five times since 2014.
“Our water bodies like Jhelum, Wullar and Dal Lakes are shrinking owing to encroachment and siltation which means reduction in water holding capacity. Where will the water go if it rains for three to four days,” said Romshoo.
In Srinagar and its vicinity, around 20 wetlands have disappeared to an ever-expanding construction sector while the remaining ones like Hokersar are facing the threat of extinction.
Post floods, a study titled ‘A satellite-based rapid assessment on floods in Jammu & Kashmir’, conducted jointly by department of environment and remote sensing (DERS) and ISRO recommended immediate de-siltation of lakes, revival of flood basin of Khushalsar, Gilsar, Anchor, Hokarsar, Shallabugh, Haigam, preparing a flood zonation map, construction of an alternate flood channel and regular dredging of the rivers to handle future flood threats.
“Who is bothered about it? The bureaucrats and planners from outside don’t have any stake in Kashmir. Why should they be concerned?” asked Drabu.
There are other factors too adding to flood risk – mushrooming of illegal residential colonies and government institutions in flood basins, particularly in Anantnag and Srinagar.
The entire flood basin from Kandizal in south to Lasjan in Srinagar has seen illegal residential colonies and business complexes mushroom over the years. The situation is no different on Beimna side, the area that only a few years ago served as water absorption basin. It now houses some of the tallest buildings like offices of school education board, Srinagar Development Authority and revenue department, Hajj house, SKIMS Bemina hospital and paramilitary CRPF camp.
The looming threat
In 2014, it was after a rainfall of over 620 mm that people in Kashmir found themselves marooned in the flood. Such has been the drastic impact of siltation on water holding capacity of Jhelum since then that a rainfall of just 150 mm – 100 in Anantnag and 50 in Srinagar – on June 30 created the flood like situation.
“The disaster is looming over our head. And we are all waiting for it to happen,” said the flood control department official.
Mudasir Ahmad is a Srinagar-based reporter.