Kosi’s sorrow set to last until winter

Water volume has only risen in the past two days from an average of 1.25 lakh cusecs to 1.80 lakh cusecs due to heavy rains. And according to the latest Met report made available to the Crisis Management Group (CMG) headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar today, more rainfall, about 50 mm, is forecast in the next two days. This not only makes the picture look grim but also raises the possibility of more areas being affected in the coming days as water volume is estimated to increase to 2.5 lakh cusecs. The worst on the Kosi has been 9 lakh cusecs in a flood in the pre-Independence period.

As of now, about 800 villages across 264 panchayats in 25 blocks of Madhepura, Supaul and other neighbouring districts are hit. A massive effort is underway to evacuate 20 lakh people and move them to about 110 large relief camps being built on an urgent basis with the help of National Disaster Management Authority.

While no repair of the breach can be undertaken for the next few months till the water volume reduces substantially below 50,000 cusecs, the CMG in consultation with the Ganga Flood Control Commission has come up with a three-pronged strategy to divert water from the eastern embankment to the west:

• The first step is to move porcupines — massive conical concrete structures — to the breach site from wherever possible. These will be placed where the breach is to prevent any further increase in the already 1.7-km breach and also deflect the water to the western side.

• The second step involves driving metal sheet piles into the river bed near the breach site. The CMG has been informed that about 30 metric tonnes of metal sheet piles are ready for movement from Farakka. These will be used to deflect the water westwards.

• The third step is to build an 8-km long and about 6-m wide water channel so that diverted water is given a passage back to the original route.

The only physical access to the site is also blocked as a large number of people, on the Nepal side, have taken shelter on the embankment which is the highest point. This means there is no clear path to move such heavy material to the breach site.

For this purpose, the CMG was informed that work has begun on war footing to build an alternate 11-km road to the northern point of the breach on the eastern embankment to move the excavators, dig the channel and place the porcupines.

While that happens, a plan is being drawn up to use helicopters to airlift Gabions, which are essentially huge heaps of heavy stones held togther in iron nets, and drop them near the breached segment. The hope is that these will help deflect some water. The Army is expected to carry out this exercise.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has mobilized about 100 boats, in addition to those available with an Army column. Each column has 100 Armymen and 10 boats. On the relief front, the green signal was today given for four more columns of the Army taking the total number to eight columns and two more helicopters taking its number to six into relief operations. The Army has pledged to provide about 4000 relief tents, of which about 500 tents would reach the affected areas by today evening, and the Red Cross is also learnt to have pledged 500 tents for the relief operations.

With over 500 boats operating in the relief operations, the state government informed the CMG that over 1.5 lakh people have been evacuated from the affected zone. While the state government has erected 110 shelters that are currently hosting over 50,000 affected people, it plans to erect several large shelters with public utilities in the next few days.

TRAGEDY CAME IN WAVES

The Kosi embankment breach, and its aftermath

20 drown after boat capsizes

Twenty people rescued by the Army are feared drowned after two boats of the 202 Engineers regiment capsized at Mirganj in Madhepura district, in the middle of the post-breach Kosi stream. The boats were carrying marooned survivors from an inundated village.

The incident happened around 1.30 pm on Friday. An ITBP boat rushed to the rescue and saved about 30 people. Additional Commissioner (Disaster Management) Pratyay Amrit said 50 people were traveling in the two 25-seater boats. “Twenty people are feared drowned. No bodies have been recovered so far”.

BEHIND THE BREACH

AUGUST 18: 400-metre breach develops in the eastern embankment of the Kosi at Kusaha in Nepal, 12 km upstream from the Bhimnagar barrage on the India-Nepal border

AUGUST 25: Breach becomes more than four times bigger, extending to 1.7 km. Over 80% of the Kosi’s discharge is now flowing through the breached segment; the original river, to the west, is carrying only 20% discharge. The new stream, passing through Madhepura and Supaul districts, is between 15 km and 18 km wide.

AUGUST 28: Prime Minister makes an aerial survey of the disaster zone, calls the flood a national calamity. Crisis Management Committee decides to mobilize material from the Farakka barrage and elsewhere to divert the stream back to its original course. The discharge is now 1.8 lakh cusecs. 1.6 lakh people have been evacuated, over 50,000 are living in 110 relief camps.

WHAT NOW? In next 3-4 days, large public shelters will be erected for the affected population. The engineers’ battle with the breach will continue.