Former State Planning Board member and ‘Metro Man’ E. Sreedharan has asked the government to institute a comprehensive technical study of the unprecedented floods in August and suggest measures so that similar tragedies do not get repeated.
“This deluge was a culmination and combination of several factors, all as a result of the delayed decisions, exploitation of environment and unbridled encroachments and this tragedy was man-made,” Mr. Sreedharan said in a letter to the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding a comprehensive study as to why such unprecedented floods and slope failures took place.
A technical committee, headed by an engineer from outside Kerala, was necessary to suggest measures and avoid similar tragedies, Mr. Sreedharan, who is principal adviser, DMRC, said. The committee should be asked to submit report in four months, he added.
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Delayed decision
Even though there was a red alert, dam engineers did not take it seriously and 38 of the 44 dams had to be opened suddenly and simultaneously which resulted in a deluge. A 40% increase in the precipitation could have been easily absorbed by reservoirs had the water releases were started sufficiently early, he said.
A practising engineer for 65 years, Mr. Sreedharan listed 10 factors to support his theory that floods were man-made. The first factor was unreliability and lack of confidence in the India Meteorological Department’s weather forecasts.
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Lack of adequate data with dam authorities, corelating the rain fall precipitation at various points of catchments with rate of rising of water in the reservoir along with time lag between precipitation and rising of water level had been cited as another reason, he pointed out.
Lack of coordination between dam authorities and absence of data to compute the combined effect of more than one dam being opened, unauthorised structures within the river regime blocking free and natural flow of water, heavy silting of reservoirs resulting in significant reduction in their storage capacities had also cited.
Sand mining
Mr. Sreedharan pointed out that formation of islands in the river beds in the absence of a healthy, controlled sand mining policy leading to thick jungle growth with huge trees in these islands had resulted in severe blockage of the Bharathapuzha river.
Man-made bunds and inadequate discharge capacity of the gates of the Vembanad Lake had caused floodwaters to rise in Kuttanad, deforestation, encroachments in forest areas, unscrupulous quarrying that trigger landslips were the other reasons cited.