In normal times, the Brahmaputra is the economic vein of Assam. But when the rains come immediately after the Assamese New Year in April, the Brahmaputra becomes uncontrollable. The Old Red River then converts itself into Assam's River of Sorrow.Assam this year is experiencing the kind of flood which the State has not witnessed for 48 years. The last time the Brahmaputra and its numerous tributaries took such a shape was in 1950, after the great earthquake, when the river swelled, washing away the town of Sadiya and wiping off the map more than half of Dibrugarh town.The current wave of floods, which began on June 10, and has still not shown any sign of respite, has so far submerged nearly 50 per cent of the State's area, with Dhemaji, the eastern most district remaining under water for more than 13 weeks now. The river-island of Majuli has been submerged, almost 100 per cent, more than twice, while the swelling river has also entered Guwahati for the second time since 1988.The State Government isstill looking for additional aid from the Centre. It has so far got only Rs 41.6 crore, that being Assam's share from the national Calamity Relief fund.The National Highways is under water at many places, (``You simply count at how many spots,'' says a senior official in the State Flood Control Department), severing the vital road links not just to different districts of the State, but also snapping supply lines to the other States of the region, Meghalayha, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.Floods in Uttar Pradesh and North Bengal have worsened the situation. Thousands of trucks carrying essential foodstuff to the Northeastern region are stranded in those places, while the stock in the region is dwindling fast, sending signals of an imminent food shortage.Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has been pleading with the Centre to release more funds, as also to send foodstuff through railway trains. Luckily, the railway link is still untouched. ``But one never knows, thesituation is bad,'' said Mahanta.The unpredictability and the unmanageable nature of the Brahmaputra has been traced back to the great earthquake of 1950, which was very severe, measuring 8.6 on the Richter Scale, which caused heavy land-slips in the upper reaches of the river, particularly in the present Lohit, Siang and Dibang Valley districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Those land-slips resulted in large-scale change of course of the river as also substantial rise in the beds due to heavy silting.Deforestation in Arunachal Pradesh has added to the problem of washing down of more top-soil, and it was only last week that a massive land-slip blocked the course of Lang, a tributary of the Lohit, one of the five Arunachal rivers, which meet at Sadiya in Assam to constitute the main course of the Brahmaputra. One official report of the past says: ``On the north, the rainfall is heavier and the hills are less stable and thus more liable to soil erosion and landslides.''Periodic tremors, some of them of severeintensity, have also made the river unpredictable, disturbing the drainage network in Lower Assam as also in some parts of Upper Assam. (Assam is geographically divided into Upper and Lower, going by the river's course from the east to west.)Mahanta has been repeatedly lamenting that the ambitious master plans prepared by the Brahmaputra Board, (a body constituted under an Act of Parliament and directly administered by the Ministry of Water Resources), which have been gathering dust in New Delhi with the Centre saying there are no funds to implement those. Only one major scheme, the Pagladiya Project, has been cleared and funds sanctioned and released so far, while the schemes meant to tame the upper tributaries are still only on paper.This year, the total damage is yet to be worked out, while rough estimates show that the value of loss to properties, both government and private, would not be less than Rs 1,800 crore. ``Over two lakh private houses will have to rebuilt, while hundreds of governmentbuildings currently under water will also have to undergo major repairs,'' said Mahanta.The extent of damage can be assessed from a few examples. Dhemaji district has been under water for 13 weeks, the railway line in the district (which is also the only rail link to Arunachal Pradesh) has been washed away at at least six points. The entire Majuli island, a civil sub-division in Jorhat district, with an area of 460 sq km (the first British accounts of 1853 had put it at more than 1,200 sq km) has been under water for the second time since September 1. Dhubri, Gauripur and Golokganj, three major towns in the extreme western part of the state, have been under water for more than one week now. The Kaziranga National Park, abode of the one-horned rhinoceros, has been submerged to about 90 per cent for more than 10 days.``We cannot control the floods with our own resources, which are already in bad shape. Most of the funds meant for developmental work in the rural areas are beingspent for repairing damages caused by floods. And the Centre continues to say that it does not have enough funds to implement the Brahmaputra Board projects,'' laments State Flood Control Minister Pramode Gogoi. The Centre has no doubt accepted floods as a national problem, but that declaration is not enough, he adds.And, while the water-level has slightly receded, it will take at least one more month for the State to be free of flood-water. But by then, the epidemics will break out (there is already a severe shortage of safe drinking water), while the State is heading for a major food shortage as the fields have been severely damaged. Assam, in any way, produces only about 25 to 30 per cent of its own food grain requirements.
