Growing flood vulnerability
A few days of rain is all it takes to push Jammu and Kashmir to the brink. Eleven years after the devastating 2014 floods, which drowned Srinagar and submerged vast areas of South and North Kashmir, we remain as vulnerable as ever. Crores of rupees have been spent, endless plans drawn up, and yet, the Jhelum still cannot safely carry a major swell of water.
As a story in this newspaper has underlined in minute detail, in 2014, the Jhelum’s capacity stood at around 35,000 cusecs. After years of “flood mitigation” projects, that figure has crawled up to just 41,800 cusecs, just a marginal gain when you remember that the peak flow at Sangam hit an estimated 115,000 cusecs during the floods. What exactly have we achieved?
The World Bank-funded Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project (JTFRP) and the Comprehensive Flood Management Plan (CFMP) were launched with great fanfare and big budgets. Yet dredging of the Jhelum and its spill channels, the most basic work to restore capacity, has not taken place since March 2020. Phase I of CFMP, which aimed at removing immediate bottlenecks, is only 80 percent complete, and the funds are already exhausted. Meanwhile, the larger river study meant to guide future work still drags on, delaying the crucial Detailed Project Report.
Meanwhile, 1,884 encroachments — boundary walls, buildings, trees — continue to choke the river’s natural flow. Wular Lake and wetlands like Hokersar and Brari Nambal, once nature’s safety valves, are filling up with sediment, unregulated sand mining is altering the channel bed unpredictably, and bridges and irrigation structures still obstruct water movement as they did in 2014.
Authorities must stop treating flood control as a side project to road-building and lake beautification. Money meant for protecting lives cannot be quietly redirected elsewhere. Completing CFMP’s first phase, clearing encroachments, and regulating sand mining must be treated as emergency priorities. The river must be made to carry what nature demands, or we will pay the price in lives and livelihoods.
