Posted on April 11, 2017
By Mudasir Yaqoob, Greater Kashmir
The failure of authorities to complete dredging in River Jhelum and other water bodies in time has made things worse as the quick discharge of flood waters would have controlled the water level to large extent in Jhelum.
The officials admitted that the situation would have been different in case work was done by or before the deadline which ended in January 2017.
The Kolkata based firm to whom dredging work was allotted has dredged out only around one lakh cubic meters against the target of seven lakh cubic meters till January 2017.
“The dredging was aimed to increase the water capacity of river Jhelum and allow the quick discharge of flood water within river without harming areas to its either sides. If the project had been completed on time, the present situation would have been all together different,” said an official.
Elaborating, he said that in Srinagar, the present capacity of river to hold water is from twenty eight thousand cusecs to thirty thousand cusecs.
“The dredging out of seven lac cubic meters material from river in Srinagar was aimed to achieve the target to increase the capacity of Jhelum upto forty five thousand cusecs. That simply means the completion of project on time would have allowed flood water at present time to discharge quickly,” he said.
An expert of water resources said that “failure of authorities to complete the dredging project on time is proving to be a disaster.”
“Suppose the water level at Ram Munshi Bagh touched the alarm level at 4 O’ Clock. If we had successfully dredged out entire seven lakh cubic meters, the water level would have been down by two to three feet by 4’ O Clock,” he said.
He added that even the increase or decrease of one inch in water level of Jhelum, at the time when floods are imminent, makes a difference.
“People would have observed that sand bags are used at the river embankments when water comes upto the level where it can overflow. The width of sand bag that stops water from overflowing is around four inch only. When these four inches decide the directions of water, one can simply imagine the difference of two to three feet water level,” he explained.
Assistant Executive Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sartaj Singh admitted the facts, saying: “Yes, it is true that situation would have been different in case dredging was completed in time. I cannot tell exactly what would have been difference in terms of water level. But we are sure that quick discharge of water would have helped a lot and surely delayed or avoided the flood threat.”
He claimed that in Srinagar one lakh sixty thousand cubic meters silt and sand has been dredged out by the firm.
However, the ground reality suggests that the dredged out material would be around one lakh and twenty thousand cubic meters. “From Zero Bridge to Tankipora, the firm was supposed to dredge out one lakh eight thousand cubic meters. It is yet to dredge eighty thousand cubic meters from this stretch. The completion would have made great difference in present situations,” said an official.
The Kolkata based firm, under the contract, was supposed to dredge the river stretch from Panthachowk to Panzinara, the distance of approximately measuring 24.5 kilometers and dredge out material from river, seven lakh cubic meters till January 2017.
The company had installed three dredgers in Srinagar, one at Zero Bridge, another at Chocho Fakir Krsihbal and third one at Panzinara.
The official records accessed by Greater Kashmir revealed that in December 2016, the company dredged out around 90,000 cubic meters in Srinagar.
However, the official who time and again tried to tighten the noose around the firm, asking them to expedite the dredging process, was surprisingly transferred.
Congress senior leader and former Minister Irrigation and Flood Control Department, Taj Mohidin said that authorities failed to do what was required.
“I am telling you with authority that you cannot stop floods when nothing was done to stop it. I have been observing the developments about dredging very closely. Nothing was done which we can collectively term as satisfactory exercise,” he said.
He added that progress on the ground is worse and official records would tell us the factual achievement. “The official chart, known as sonic mapping chart, would tell us what was done. It is the chart that tells us before dredging how much silt is there beneath the water. After dredging, the process of sonic mapping is repeated to check how much was extracted,” he said.
He added that the present dredging is only a process to extract sand from the centre of river, leaving silt behind on either sides of embankment.
He added that the machines purchased during his tenure as minister of this department were not utilized. “I had purchased two machines, one of them is feasible to dredge river from Amira Kadal onwards where it is not possible to press big dredger. But that machine was not used,” he said.
He said that the calculation of material extracted from Jhelum at any time is not a big deal. “Government can check the veracity of officials’ records by setting up an independent team of experts who can measure extracted material within few minutes while visiting the dumping spots,” he said.
Srinagar city bore the brunt of 2014 floods as habitations on both sides of Jhelum were submerged for several weeks. On September 7, 2014, the water level in Jhelum broke all records— crossing 33-feet at Sangam at Islamabad (Anantnag) in south Kashmir and 23-feet at Ram Munshi Bagh here.
Source: Greater Kashmir
