Floods: Civil society argues against further big dams

The Pioneer , Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Correspondent : PNS | BHUBANESWAR
At a State-level consultation on floods, a joint effort by the State’s civil society groups, here on Sunday, participants reemphasised the need for learning to live with rivers rather than trying to tame them to control a few days of floods.

“In our effort of blind urbanisation and industrialisation, we are encroaching upon the rivers and flood plains thereby causing increased flood fury in the State,” said convener of Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) Ranjan Panda. The WIO organised this consultation along with the Odisha Development Action Forum (ODAF), the Forum for Collective Forms of Cooperation (FCFC) and the Odisha Khadya Adhikar Abhiyan (OKAA).

“From about 19 million hectares of flood-affected areas five decades back, the country is now facing flood fury in almost more than 40 million hectares of area, that too despite a lot of investment in embankments, dams and other such structural measures,” Panda said. He sought attention of policy planners to understand this and work towards coping with floods rather than trying to control it.

In his presentation that set the tone for the debate, Panda referred to his study on the mismanagement of the Hirakud and Rengali dams during the recent floods and said how the Hirakud dam is causing more floods than controlling it. It is time such dams were discarded as is being elsewhere in the world, he said.

Retired Engineer-in-Chief Sridhar Behera, who joined the workshop, did not agree to the fact that floods are man-made and said there is need for new types of dams and structures. He focused on a “dynamic storage-type dam” on river Mahanadi.

Former professor of Utkal University NK Mahalik justified the higher level kept in the Hirakud reservoir, before the September floods came. The water was required to be kept for irrigation, industries and power generation. However, the water should have been released much before the floods were coming. By this, the devastation could have been reduced, he added.

Engineer-in-Chief in the planning division of the Water Resources Department NK Mahapatra said the department is looking for constructive inputs for effective management of floods.

Manoj Mishra from the Yamuna Jibe Abhiyan, New Delhi, said floods are made disastrous events because of the age-old British engineering knowledge that is still relied upon. “It’s we humans who can only do foolishness. Floods are not disasters; they are a natural phenomenon associated with rivers. It’s only that we get discomfort with floods because we have encroached upon the river flood plains. Time we learnt to live with disasters and take measures at individual and community levels towards this,” he observed.

About 70 persons from civil society groups, affected communities, academia, media, engineers and others concerned participated in the discussion. There was near-unanimity of view that no further big dams are required in the State. So, the State Government was urged to refrain from any such ‘disastrous’ idea in future.

The participants decided to work towards a “People’s Agenda for Flood Management” and submit it to the State Government as well as take it to the people at the grassroots for further dialogue and implementation. Issues like flood plain zoning and implementation, climate change impacts over rivers and floods, inter-State coordination, flood forecasting, forest and land management and food security would be incorporated in this agenda. A taskforce was formed to take this programme ahead by inviting participation of all concerned sections.

The workshop was presided over by a senior Gandhian scholar, Kumar Kalanand Mani, from the Peaceful Society, Goa; and a senior activist from the Keonjhar Citizens’ Forum, Kiran Sahu.

 
SOURCE : http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/15685-floods-civil-society-argues-against-further-big-dams.html
 


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