Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 24: As the worst kind of floods have thrown up several challenges and brought to fore many new aspects required to be pondered upon seriously, Jammu and Kashmir Government has decided to seek the suggestions of river management experts on carrying out flood protection works in all the major rivers and nullahs of the State.
In this regard, the Government has asked the Union Home Secretary, Anil Goswami to facilitate the visit of experts of Union Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water Commission as early as possible so that steps could be initiated to meet the new challenges.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma and Commissioner Secretary, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Dr Pawan Kotwal have asked the Union Home Secretary, Anil Goswami to facilitate the visit of river management experts from the Union Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water Commission to guide Jammu and Kashmir Government on flood protection works.
“As the disastrous floods have thrown up new challenges not only in Kashmir valley but also in Jammu, it is imperative to carry out flood protection works after obtaining advice from the experts in river management”, they said. The State Government has decided to obtain expert advice on all the major rivers and nullahs particularly Jhelum, Chenab, Tawi and Ujh so that corrective steps are taken to ensure that floods in future do not cause such devastation.
About the new challenges thrown up by the unprecedented floods, sources said that till now the protection works in the major rivers of the State were being carried out on the basis of the available record about the flood level in the respective rivers. But during the recent heavy and continuous rainfalls the water level in almost all the rivers and nullahs was beyond any imagination as such the water level during recent rains is now required to be taken into consideration for future flood protection works”.
Quoting an example, sources said that as per the record available with the Flood Control Department, the water level in river Jhelum in Rammunshi Bagh area never crossed 22 feet but this time it reached 40 feet thereby proving all the protection works inadequate. Now the flood protection works are required to be carried out by keeping in mind 40 feet level.
It is considered that floods of such intensity were last witnessed in the Kashmir valley particularly in Srinagar in 1902 as such everybody was taken aback when the water level continued to go beyond 22 feet and reached 40 feet.
In response to a question, they said that river management experts would guide Jammu and Kashmir Government as to what should be the height of flood channels in all the major rivers in the light of figures about water level during recent floods, how many new channels have to be created, whether new sluice gates are required to be installed and whether existing channels have to be strengthened.
“The advice of experts would be of immense help in initiating effective flood control measures and regulating flow of water by way of carrying out necessary work on spill channels and sluice gates”, they said.
Moreover, these experts would suggest whether some changes are required to be made in the projects already submitted by the State Government to the Union Ministry of Water Resources and Central Water Commission especially in the light of unprecedented floods. “Their assessment and suggestions would also help in clearance of the projects, whose fate is otherwise hanging in balance during the past quite long time”, sources said.
As already reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR, flood protection projects of river Jhelum, Chenab, Tawi and Siachen rivers are pending either with the Ministry of Water Resources or Central Water Commission due to varied reasons and visit of river management experts would play important role in deciding fate of such projects.
When contacted, Commissioner Secretary, Irrigation and Flood Control, Dr Pawan Kotwal confirmed that Union Home Secretary has been requested to facilitate the visit of river management experts. “Though no date has so far been communicated to us but we are hopeful of early visit so that necessary corrective steps are taken to prevent damages due to floods in future”, he added.
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