Bend in the river
In a country where the National Disaster Management Policy on floods has not met for two years and where floods are an annual scourge, is it any surprise that a half-a-dozen districts just vanished one fine day in Bihar’s high floods? Literally. On August 18, the barrage on Kosi river at Kushha in Nepal burst, breaching one of the major embankments on the Indo-Nepal border. Within hours, five districts of north Bihar – Supaul, Araria, Saharsa, Madhepura and Purnea – went underwater as they have never have, even by the high standards of flooding they are accustomed to annually.
By the time marginal relief started trickling in, every symbol of civilisation had vanished: roads, electricity, schools, police stations and railway tracks became virtually traceless. Rail and road links between two important towns, Purnea and Saharsa have broken down amidst no shelter, depravation, epidemics and all classical accompaniments of large scale flooding. “The people in relief camps are starving. There is nothing to eat, no clean water to drink,” complains Ranjita Ranjan, Member of Parliament, Saharsa.
Faced with the worst-ever floods that Bihar’s fragile infrastructure has been exposed to, the larger picture raises disturbing questions. On August 17-18, Bihar’s Water Resources Minister, Vijendra Yadav, maintained there was no problem with the bandh. Yet within 24 hours, the Kushha bandh had collapsed. “The state government did not inform the Central government,” says Union Water Resources Minister, Jaiprakash Yadav, in a tone that is accusatory. Well neither was the state government or the new Nepalese Republic, which after the visit of Prime Minister Prachanda to China the same week, appeared to be less than enthusiastic about the fate of approximately 10 million people who are marooned and many hundreds who have simply been washed away in neighbouring India.
The Kushha bandh is a joint Indo-Nepal creation meant to tame the mighty Kosi, which has tormented the state and its riverine districts for decades. In 1955, when successive devastations caused by Kosi was brought to the notice of Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, it was decided to construct a barrage on its eastern and western banks, both measuring about 125 kilometres, after a treaty was concluded between India and Nepal. The Kushha barrage was completed in 1964. Since then, it is the duty of both national governments to manage their bailiwicks, something that obviously has been ignored.
There are many versions without any official verification. According to Bihar government sources, a team of state irrigation department engineers had recently visited the Nepal side to ascertain damages, if any, that had been caused to the barrage, but had been driven away by Maoists or their sympathisers leaving the Nepalese side of the barrage unmanned. Not surprisingly, the heavy breach that flooded Bihar occurred from that part.
The total extent of damage is yet to be ascertained, but from what is available as evidence, the Bihar government would need all the resources it can to get out of this hole. In Supaul, according to preliminary information, a dozen villages: Virpur, Chainpur, Haripur, Sitapur, Dora, Motipur, Chakla, Dadia and Tulsipatti have disappeared. Many other villages have at the moment been cut off from the rest of the state.
