|| G.H. KALOO
Kashmir valley has been witnessing floods from times immemorial and it was in 879 AD when major portion of the mountain near Khadinyar slipped into the River Jehlum and blocked the flow, thereby caused wholesale inundation upstream. There have been many more floods in the past which are on record to have left a trail of death and destruction behind. If becomes, therefore, clear that floods are not a new phenomena to Kashmir Valley, but all the State government right from fifties have been lukewarm towards this problem and it was only in Mr Sadiq’s tenure that dredging of the Outfall Channel was started on a large scale but no further concrete action was later taken to tackle the Flood problem. It was again in Seventies that a High Level Committee Headed by Mir Ghulam Rasool, an eminent Engineer, was constituted and a Soil Scientist, Dr Uppal from Ludhiana University, was engaged to tackle the Flood Problem in Kashmir Valley.
If becomes, therefore, clear that floods are not a new phenomena to Kashmir Valley, but all the State government right from fifties have been lukewarm towards this problem and it was only in Mr Sadiq’s tenure that dredging of the Outfall Channel was started on a large scale but no further concrete action was later taken to tackle the Flood problem.
The said Committee approached CWC and a team of their Experts remained associated with local Engineers and a Master Plan prepared to tackle floods in the Valley. The joint Team arrived at an estimated figure of 1.25 lakh cusecs of flood discharge but 68000 cusecs only was adopted to be tackled in the first Phase.
It was decided to render Flood Spill Channel at Padshahibagh fit to carry 20000 cusecs and main River was designed to carry 48000 cusecs of flood discharge whileas above one Lakh Cusecs of flood discharge was witnessed in September, 2014. But it is classic tragedy that no steps were taken by the State governments from time to time to implement the Scheme. Besides there has been mass conversion of Paddy–growing areas either into Residential/ Commercial establishments and Orchards. Further there has been mass deforestation which has been contributing heavy silt load to the River Jehlum and its Tributaries, thereby reduced carrying capacity of of the Water Bodies.
There have been encroachments over the past five decades on the River Jehlum and all Nallahs, which have also compounded the problem. In this backdrop, it may be stated that the main causes for the unprecedented Flood of 2014 have been many and not one. Firstly non–implementation of the Master Plan by the past governments, Secondly mass conversion of Paddy fields– which used to serve as Detention Basins during Floods– and Thirdly the denudation of dense Forests which would not allow soil crust to flow down into water bodies.
