Flooded with wrong ideas

Dams in Nepal have been proposed as a solution to north Bihar’s flood problems. But are they really the way out?

Dinesh Mishra Patna

The secretary of the Water Resource Department (WRD) in Bihar has blamed the recent Bagmati floods on the Railways, which is building a bridge near Runni Saidpur. This is similar to circumstances back in 1965, when then Bihar minister of irrigation Mahesh Prasad Singh charged the Railways of  causing floods in the Kamla Basin. At that time, the railway minister at the Centre was Ram Subhag Singh, who hailed from Bihar. History is repeating itself after more than 40 years and now it is time for the present railway minister to step in. Events will be more entertaining now because different coalitions are ruling at Patna and Delhi. In 1965, it was the Congress at both ends. As of necessity, the proposed dams in Nepal are in the news again, as possible solutions to the flood problems, but are they?

On 2002, July 22, Jagadanand, then water resource minister of Bihar, asserted in the Bihar assembly, “…The last point, no discharge control — no flood control. Unless discharge is controlled, scientists all over the world are convinced that floods cannot be controlled…Embankments do not control discharge, they can, at best, prevent water from spreading. Weak embankments cannot hold uncontrolled discharge and flood will continue to bother us as a natural calamity. If we want to control floods in this state, we will have to control discharge in the upper riparian states and the neighbouring countries. We have had negotiations with them and have unanimously agreed to proceed jointly.”

In reply to a call to attention motion by Ram Vilas Paswan regarding floods in Bihar, Arjun Charan Sethi, Minister of Water Resources at the Centre, told the Lok Sabha on August 22, 2003, “…So far as Bihar is concerned, we are having constant interaction with the government of Nepal because we all know these rivers originate from Nepal. Unless we have any kind of agreement with Nepal, this problem cannot be solved. The proposal for setting up a joint project office in Nepal for taking up field investigations and preparation of a detailed project report has since been approved. 100 officials from Nepal, and 42 officials from India are to carry out field investigations and studies. The project will inter alia have 269m high dam with an installed capacity of 3,300 MW and irrigation benefits accruing both to India and Nepal. In addition to the Kosi Multipurpose Project, it will include Sun Kosi Diversion scheme as well.”

A similar statement was made by Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, central minister of water resources, in Kishanganj in 2004. Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav, state minister of water resources at the centre on June 24, 2004, said while talking to the press in New Delhi that a sum of Rs 29 crores has been sanctioned for the construction of the Kosi High Dam (He must have meant that it was for the preparation of the detailed project report). As far as Barahkshetra Dam is concerned, politicians in India are sticking to the same statement that dialogue with Nepal is on since 1947. Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav reiterated his statement again in 2005. The joint team is working in Nepal for the preparation of the detailed project report but its personnel are tight-lipped over what they are going to propose and when.

The ghost of the Barahkshetra Dam has been haunting planners, engineers and politicians ever since the embanking plans of the Kosi was rejected in favour of a large dam by the central government in 1946 and statements like the one given by Jagadanand, Arjun Charan Sethi, Das Munshi or Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav are routine matter in the flood season.