*Hydrology data of major rivers paints horrifying picture
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 25: A three member Central group, which was recently constituted by the Union Ministry of Water Resources, is arriving on October 29 to study the causes behind unprecedented floods that caused massive devastation in Jammu and Kashmir early last month.
The group headed by Chairman, Central Water Commission, A B Pandya and comprising Director National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, Er R D Singh and representative of Indus Commission was earlier scheduled to visit the State on October 16 and 17 but due to some engagements the group could not spare time.
Now, the group has intimated to the Irrigation and Flood Control Department of Jammu and Kashmir that it would visit the State on October 29 and 30, highly placed sources told EXCELSIOR.
The group will visit Pargwal where floods in Chenab caused massive devastation. The CWC Chairman led team would also visit right bank of Chenab near the existing bridge where flood waters crossed the danger mark and led to massive damages.
As far as river Tawi is concerned, which too caused havoc in the low lying areas, the group would be taken to the most affected areas including Tawi Island, sources said, adding the team would also assess the devastation caused by the floods in Ramgarh area particularly to the posts of Border Security Force (BSF).
In response to a question, sources said that the group has yet not informed about the itinerary of visit to Kashmir valley. However, hydrological data sought by the group from the Irrigation and Flood Control Department has already been furnished for its assessment.
While the Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control of Kashmir province has submitted data about the Jhelum river, his counterpart in Jammu region has furnished statistics about River Chenab, River Tawi and Surankote River, which caused massive devastation during the floods.
It is pertinent to mention here that the group was constituted by Union Water Resources Ministry in response to a letter of Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. The recommendations of the group would help in chalking out new strategy with regard to flood protection as the existing strategy has been completely rendered archaic by the floods.
In a detailed note submitted to the expert group, the Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control has suggested that as per the J&K Water Resources and Management Act, 2010, the constructional activity in the flood plains/zones be banned completely to keep the basins free from any encroachment to avoid such type of catastrophe in future.
According to the official data furnished to the expert group, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR, normal discharge in Chenab is 19700 cusecs while as during September 2014 the maximum discharge was recorded at 611000 cusecs.
Similarly, normal discharge of Tawi is 1200 cusecs while as the maximum discharge observed during September this year was 478600 cusecs.
As far as Basantar river is concerned, the maximum discharge during September 2014 was recorded at 66150 cusecs as against normal discharge of 410 cusecs. About Ujh river, the data said that normal discharge is 1480 cusecs but during last month the maximum discharge was 158700 cusecs.
Likewise , normal discharge in Surankote river is 25200 cusecs but during September 2014 the maximum discharge was 215000 cusecs. As far as Devak river is concerned, the normal discharge is 250 cusecs but during September 2014 the maximum discharge was recorded at 40696 cusecs.
“From this data one can easily understand how much horrific these rivers were during the first week of September”, sources said, adding “now this data has to be kept in mind to frame the future strategy vis-à-vis flood protection works”.
Besides the data, the Department of Irrigation and Flood Control has also informed the expert group about the projects whose fate is hanging in balance during the past quite long time.
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