Sluice gates and flood drought deadly duo

Thanks to the mass communication and social media the disastrous flood conditions in Bihar is not hidden from anybody and help is being offered at various levels. But behind this current deplorable condition, lies years of huge negligence and ignorance,  a lot of problems which were left unattended and is still seeking attention of the authorities.

The flood situation remained grim in Bihar since 1^st week of July to 1^st week of August. More than 88lac people of 111 blocks of the 13 districts hit by the flooded rivers- Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, Kamla Balan, Adhwara and Khiroi. Now water is receding in almost all area and people returning to their homes.  Damage to infrastructure is being assessed. There has been immense damage to life and property. Sluice gate operators could have reduced the floods if only they have acted prudently by releasing water through these gates to dry areas and channels in July. If the authorities had been alert and acted wisely the disaster would have minimized. The dam should have started releasing water by July 1 to the dry areas of these 13 districts when these six rivers started filling

The flood drought deadly duo can only be tackled when none of them are causing curse. The panic and urgency shown at all level during the flood or drought, if even half of them be initiated during happy hours when there is no flood, things could be different. According to a report 48 rivers in 23 districts of Bihar have minimal or no water at all and ironically these are the same districts some parts of which are fighting flood these days.  These problems may be linked to the terrible conditions of the sluice gates all over the state, which are rarely serviced or maintained or may not have been serviced ever.  These rusted, non functional sluice gates and their latches are the reason why rivers are not channeling in their respective paths and rather  creating havoc in the places they are made to confine in  and hence the remaining route of the rivers are drying up, causing irrigation and other livelihood  problems associated with water scarcity in the nearby areas.

Some drying/ dried rivers should be mentioned here like ‘Noon’ in Muzaffarpur and Samastipur, Noon kadane, vaya in Samastipur, Balaan in Muzaffarpur,Begusarai, and Samastipur.Baya in Vaishali and Samastipur, Teesbhawara in Darbhanga, Thomane in Madhubani, Mahi and Gandaki in Saran and karikoshi in Katihar all are dried rivers and these districts are flood affected.

The purpose of the sluice gates were to adjust the output to reservoirs, chaurs,  canals and the dried river beds from behind those dams while maintaining the proper reservoir depth both in times of flood and in drought. All dams of substantial size need to have a way of releasing water in controlled amount because of changing reservoirs capacities, downstream water demands or minimum stream flow requirements. There are provisions of these gates in all the dams in north Bihar but all these gates are poorly maintained. No one asks for the water from the flooded part to the drought affected area. Only the leakages cater the dried area and no one bothers to repairs the leakages and make the proper supply of water to the dried areas.

This year a social worker from Samastipur Mr. Ranjeet Nirguni tried hard to get the water from the flooded Bagmati, Gandak, Kareh and Baya rivers to the dried Balaan, Noon, Jamuari rivers and some dried chaurs and canals. He has done a series of meetings with the government officials and other social workers.

After obviating the technical and procedural hurdle he succeeded in getting the water in these dried beds. After all that hard work he succeeded in getting water in Jamuari, Noon and Balaan rivers and Mahisaur chaur through these sluice gates. In this process he visited the three districts and raised the matter before almost all the concerned officials and finally brought smile on thousands of farmer’s faces. I don’t know whether the maintenance and optimum use of these gates are the part of much sought river rejuvenation plan or not but this initiative with some more Nirgunis can bring a big change in the conditions