Life line or a threat to life
Rivers never go reverse. They go adverse if they have no sufficient course. So is the case with Jhelum. Despite being a great natural livelihood source, in the months of August and September it takes a threatening course. After moderate rains in the month of August this year, from 25 to 27, it threatened life and property.
Its anger is genuine as we squeezed it through encroachments, abused it by dumping of garbage and disrespected it by non–preventive and non-clearance measures. While these months are seasonally designed as months of harvesting of autumnal crop and fruit they put the valley of Kashmir on tenterhooks for fear of losing this all. Only a decade ago in 9/2014 valley suffered immense loss of properties.
The life line of Kashmir has now become its Damodar as its water carrying capacity has decreased drastically on account of continued siltation, encroachments and debris. The river bed has accumulated silt leading to lowering of banks which are mostly unmanaged and un-buttressed giving in to easy breaches, and then floods. Although some dredging work was stated in 2015 under the aegis of the Irrigation & Flood Control Department Srinagar engaging a Kolkata based firm at an estimated project cost of Rs.46 crore yet no fruitful results could be seen.
Moreover, in the aftermath of 9/2014 floods, the Government of India and the World Bank signed a $250 million credit agreement on 21/1/2016 under the Jhelum & Tawi Flood Recovery Project. It aimed to reconstruct public infrastructure, restore livelihoods, improve disaster management capacity, strengthen urban flood management, implement a contingency emergency response and better manage natural disaster in future. The project was to focus on 20-flood devastated districts of Jammu & Kashmir. These areas being highly vulnerable to natural disasters, the project was to emphasise on disaster mitigation apart from key components of reconstruction. Though carrying capacity of river Jhelum was increased at Sangam from 31,800 cusecs to 41,000 cusecs after phase 1 of a flood management initiative was completed, concerns loom large about continued encroachments and paucity of sufficient dredging works since 2020.
Directing administration and control rooms to be alert, issuing advisories to people, paying visits to flood–damaged areas and expressing grief and sympathy to shelterless are insufficient speech therapies to square the problem. Permanent preventive measures are required and governments could have done it. When underwater tunnels and motorable roads can be laid in seas and oceans, taking up of dredging work for a span of 175 kilometers of river Jhelum from Verinagh to Baramulla is no impossible task.
As the situation moves to temporary normalcy, the issue misses the attention of government and the people. To ward off this danger, government should start dredging work both upstream and downstream, use the soil and sand excavated therefrom for raising and buttressing the embankments on both side of the river, plant mulberry and willow trees, roots of which can compact the soil and stop easy slip & sliding away, erect breast walls and retaining walls. Ensure separate yearly budget provisions for clearing and maintenance of Jhelum to enable its safe passage for a life lost by flood or any other calamity whole world is lost. Besides, utilization of funds received since 2016 to 2025 for Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project- a World Bank Funded Project, is to be assessed vis-à-vis targets fixed for such funding.
The author is a former Sr. Audit Officer and Consultant in the A.G’s Office Srinagar.
