Prof. Devendra S. Bhargava
Recently, there had been a very severe disaster in the state of UttaraKhand in the northern part of India. This region had been in controversy for over a decade due to the construction of several dams on the Ganga River and its various upland tributaries in the Himalayan region. These numerous small and big dams were constructed with great hurry but without proper hydrological, geological, hydraulics related investigations including geological mappings and expected implications. The construction of dams alters the flow regime of the rivers and if a thirsty aquifer (water-bearing strata of the earth in which water is contained and flows like in a river, such as, mythologically, the underground Saraswati river confluencing Ganga-Yamuna rivers at Allahabad) is encountered in the process of dam construction then most river water gets lost in such aquifers and later on the people start crying that the river has vanished due to dam-constructions as also the lost river water is manifested when the outflow from the dam becomes mush less than the water inflow into the dam. This may also result in river diversion situations. Apart from these the flow regimes and catchment areas of the region gets severely disturbed, and thus when heavy rains occur, the floods enter in unknown and unwanted areas which no one had even visualized. This is what had happened in UttaraKhand when heavy rains coupled with cloud-bursts and huge quantities of groundwater released from water saturated aquifers exposed by the thunder-strikes, together making an extremely large volume of water flowing all around in unexpected and unknown areas causing severe flood fury. Thousands of pilgrims visiting Kedarnath and other holy shrines were washed away or buried in the debris brought in by the flood-waters and in land-slides but lacs got stranded for weeks, no where to go, nothing to eat or drink. Unfortunately, rescue operations started late and most operations got concentrated in the Hemkund area while the largest chunk of pilgrims were at Kedarnath and it’s downsides. Such a severe tragedy could have easily been avoided if the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) had its decision makers from civil engineering, hydrology, hydraulics, environmental engineering, geology, etc. backgrounds but there exist almost none of such specialists in the said ministry in which the entire decision making command is with the pseudo-environmentalists having zero knowledge of hydraulics without which no environmental or water-resource project can ever be planned, executed or investigated. Unfortunately, the real environmental engineers are considered outcastes and virus in the MOEF. The Editor thinks that it is never too late to learn this phrase.
WHY A HIGHLY SEVERE...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the real environmental engineers are considered outcastes and virus in the MOEF. The point is proved from the factual failure of Ganga cleaning in 28 years despite MOEF’s all efforts of all levels. The Author thinks that it is never too late to learn this phrase.