Dams and flood management: A double-edged sword in south Bengal’s annual flood crisis
As the world focuses on the United Nations’ upcoming Conference of Parties (COP 29) which begins tomorrow, The Statesman looks at environmental issues closer home.
With incessant rains continuing to batter different districts raising the spectre of widespread flooding, a concerned state government today talked tough to the chairman of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) over its alleged unilateral practice of releasing water from the upstream dams without informing the state government. The chief secretary BP Gopalika at a meeting held at the state secretariat at Nabanna today, made it clear to the DVC chairman, who was summoned to the meeting, that the DVC in no way can release water without informing the state government.
It would have to keep in touch with the irrigation department while releasing water. It should not release water willy-nilly, Mr Gopalika is reported to have told the DVC chairman. “Nothing should be done of its own,” the chief secretary is reported to have said. Mr Gopalika’s tough-talking came in the wake of a grim situation unfolding in different districts following incessant rains and the release of water by the DVC from a number of reservoirs this morning, as the spectre of floods loom large in districts like Birbhum, Hooghly, Midnapore and a number of other districts.
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Alapan Banerjee, the chief adviser to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking at a Press conference at Nabanna today said that the DVC had in the past 48 hours released about 1 lakh cusecs of water from its different barrages compounding the problem further. Expressing concern, Mr Banerjee said release of water by the DVC apart, there is a high tide on 5 and 6 August raising possibility of fresh inundation in a number of districts like Howrah and Hooghly.
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He also said that no water is available during summer when it is needed most for irrigation purposes but should it rains in Jharkhand then the DVC releases water to inundate Bengal. Earlier this morning DVC had released about 70,000 cusecs of water and on Friday it had released about 12,000 cusecs of water from Mython and Panchet barrages, an official at Nabanna said.
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