‘No lessons learnt from 2023 deluge’: Drainage dept action casts doubt on Jalandhar flood mgmt

It has become customary for the authorities to swing into action after every deluge to calm the flood-affected down, but after the dust settles, things go back to square one.

This time also, the drainage department has awarded the tender for silt removal and the work had commenced just a few days ago, which means, if the monsoon arrives in Punjab as expected by the end of June, the work will again be halted just like last year.

Incidentally, last year’s silt removal tender was vaild till March 31, 2024, but the authorities apparently did nothing to prevent a possible flood scenario this year.

When silt builds up in the bed of a river, it can make the river less navigable. Sedimentation causes the riverbed to rise.

Executive Engineer (XEN), Drainage, Jalandhar Division, Amarinder Singh Pandher, while speaking to The Indian Express, said that they have awarded the tender for silt removal, with the contractor responsible for lifting the sand and remitting the payment to the government. He confirmed that the work commenced a few days ago. Regarding the clearance of the 21 channels under the Gidderpindi bridge, Pandher said that the silt would also be cleared from under the bridge wherever necessary.

Senior officers from the drainage department said that some people used to protest whenever their teams went for desilting in the past. However, these people have now relented and the desilting work has commenced.

Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, Himanshu Aggarwal, said that he was aware of the protesters’ issue. After meeting with them and explaining the importance of desilting to prevent floods, the work has started on a large scale and will be completed before the onset of the monsoon.

Around two dozen villages in Lohian and Gidderpindi area under Shahkot Sub Division of Jalandhar district had grappled with devastating floods, including in 2008, 2019, and 2023, with the most recent flood causing widespread damage to villages near the Sutlej River.

The root cause of these floods lies around and beneath the Gidderpindi bridge, where the Sutlej River encounters obstruction due to excessive silt built-up due to inaction on the part of officials concerned for years.

There are 21 channels under around 1-km-long 84 number bridge in Gidderpindi and there should be a gap of around 18 feet between the bridge surface and the riverbed so that smooth passage of river water could take place. Currently, only a few channels have been cleared of the debris, but the rest are choked with sediments, most of which are mounds of silt as tall as 12-13 feet, obstructing the flow of water.

“But out of these 21 channels, there are 5-6 channels where the gap is around 10 feet and the remaining ones are filled with sand even up to 12-13 feet. Now, how the water can pass smoothly from 5-6 feet gap when the river swells in the rainy season,” said Kulwinder’s Singh, president of ‘Harh Roku Lok Committee Ilaqa’ (Flood Control People’s Committee), formed by the people of the flood-affected villages. The drainage department may have awarded the tender to clear the silt from near the Sutlej bridge, but these channels are yet to be cleared of it while the monsoon can arrive anytime soon, he added.

In the previous floods despite the river traversing approximately 150 km through Nawanshahr, Ludhiana, and Jalandhar districts, the bottleneck at the bridge’s 21 channels at the fag end of Jalandhar district had severely impeded its smooth passage towards Harike Pattan barrage from Jalandhar, led to water backing up with high pressure and breaching Dhussi Bandh, causing inundation in all the villages near this bridge.

This year also, despite multiple reminders sent by the flood control committee, and local AAP MP Balbir Singh Seechewal writing to the drainage department, the department hasn’t done anything concrete to clear out the silt till date.

Kulwinder Singh also said that the 2-km area of east and south side of this river should always be cleared from accumulation of sand if the floods are to be controlled in Jalandhar’s villages in future. He said that people of the area should be allowed to lift this sand under the supervision of the department.

“To earn Rs 11 crore, the government’s negligence has already cost us thousands of crores in losses,” he lamented, highlighting the economic toll of repeated floods. In response, the government had announced compensation packages amounting to hundreds of crores to assist flood-affected communities, acknowledging the urgency of preemptive flood management.

The flood control committee also said that the riverbed ahead of the bridge has also been encroached on and trees have been transplanted which further obstruct the smooth flow of water.

Seechewal said when the administration, especially the drainage department, is aware of the root cause of the Jalandhar floods, then why they waited for almost a year. Now, they have just started the work to clear the sand from the Sutlej near the bridge when the monsoon is around. “I have been sending reminders since last year after the floods to clear the sand from under the Gidderpindi bridge’s channels and surrounding area, but the department has woken up from slumber just a couple of days ago. I raised the matter with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann also. Even after the directions from the CMO, the work has started only now,” he said, adding that it’s a repeat of last year.

He said that accumulated silt should be removed annually to ensure the smooth passage of water under the bridge. It is not a natural calamity but a man-made one in Jalandhar, always, he added.

According to Punjab government records, Rs 256 crore was allocated for crop losses due to last year’s floods, following an estimated damage of Rs 1,200 crore during the 2019 floods.