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KOSI Man made
disaster, and then compounded
 As
some enterprising reporters tried to view the floods from the other
side at Kusaha in
Nepal, it was clear that blaming the nature for the tragedy was only
compounding the crime. Human neglect was clearly responsible for the
breach in the embankment along the Kosi, leading to a change in the
river's course.
Kosi brought hundreds of tons of silt, and it was no secret. Only a
nation state could have carried out the dredging and other works
required to ensure that Kosi stays its original course, which was
clearly not done. Th situation had been allowed to deteriorate to
such an extent that the river bed along the original course, which
is almost completely dry now because there is hardly any water
flowing through it, is at least a few meters above that along the
new course. Years of deposition of silt, which should have been
cleaned annually, had been steadily raising the river bed along the
original course, making the flow of water along that course more and
more difficult, the Indian Express reported this week.
"The only thing that had been forcing the Kosi waters to flow along
its original course was the embankment
built in Kusaha in the late 1950s, which started coming under
increasing pressure because of the water's natural tendency to flow
along a lower terrain," it said. The last four years did not see any
desilting operations.
Now,
India
and Nepal are blaming each other. One reason was that a clause in
the Kosi agreement between India and Nepal regarding employment of
at least 60 per cent of the laborers from Nepal was openly flouted
by New Delhi's chosen contractors, leading to widespread resentment.
 Over
4,000 people from Madhepura and Saharsa, along with those at
Madhepura-Bihariganj Road,
are staying put at the Jorba canal embankment, two-three kilometers
away from their marooned villages. And many of them take boats, at
least once a day, to visit their homes and confirm that their
belongings kept in rooms on the first floor are not stolen. Several
villagers swim all the way back to their villages to place locks on
the gates of their houses.
People fear that thefts. And of course their idea of a theft could
be somewhat different from the middle class' idea. A missing cot
could mean a lot for a Madhepura villager. For a resident of
Delhi's Greater Kailash area, it may not be worth applying one's
mind. And God forbid if the two sacks moist grain is stolen from a
Dalit poor's house.
The Indian state's mindset is writ large on its official statements.
In the name of flood relief, the poor Biharis are being thrown
packets of gram-choora, or sattu. Nothing much has changed since the
days of Sudama. Several con groups have mushroomed to collect money
under the cover of relief operations. Best returns come if conmen
ask for money to cover funeral expenses.
10 September 2008
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