To revive wetland in Guwahati, Assam govt to recover land from 17 institutions

This move is part of a slew of measures being taken by the state government ahead of this year’s monsoon with the aim to restore the city’s natural drainage systems.

Guwahati, the largest city in Assam, gets affected by artificial floods. The eviction drives, which have been carried out in other parts of the state, reached the heart of the city earlier this month when the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) cleared constructions from around 300 bighas of land around the Silsako Beel, including pucca and kutcha houses and religious structures.

According to GMDA chairman Narayan Deka, around 1,000 bighas of land around the waterbody are “under encroachment”.

Experts have long been emphasising the need to clear Guwahati’s wetlands. “The renovation of wetlands like Silsako Beel or others is really necessary to manage urban flooding. We need wetlands in the city to absorb floods. In the 1950s and before that, these areas were absorbing floods so there was no urban flooding. Over time, the population has risen and there has been a lot of development. Buildings are constantly coming up and they have also been built on low lying areas. So where does the rainwater go? It flows over the roads,” said Bipul Talukdar from the Department of Civil Engineering at Assam Engineering College, who specialises in water resources system planning.

In a more contested move, Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup (Metro), Pallav Gopal Jha has also issued directions to demolish 26 bridges along the Bahini river, which runs through the city and is one of the main channels in the city that drains into the Brahmaputra. According to the order, these bridges are “obstructing the natural flow of water, causing waterlogging in different places along the Bahini river”. The move is aimed at “smooth flow of stormwater during the rainy season”, says the order.

These bridges are located on some of the busiest roads in Guwahati, connecting them to inner paths. In a city choked with traffic, there are questions over whether this is the only option available.

Engineer and senior technical consultant J N Khataniar argues that the focus should be on increasing the carrying capacity of the river.

“The average width of the Bahini is 8.5 metres but it’s not even throughout the city. A uniformity in its width should be achieved by removing obstructions. Secondly, instead of breaking the bridges, why not go below the existing bed level and work on increasing the depth of the river by two or three metres to increase its carrying capacity which should be the main objective,” Khataniar said.

Talukdar, too, was of the opinion that the necessity of demolishing the bridges should be studied. “All the river channels in the city are in a very bad condition from an encroachment point of view and a water quality point of view. They are narrow and mostly carry sewage. We have to fully rejuvenate the river instead,” he said.