It was a disaster waiting to happen. In fact, it looked as though the administration was waiting for it to happen. For the past four years, a huge water body, spread over 11 sq km, rather miraculously hung on behind the fragile earthen barricade of the 80-year-old Jamunia dam, 10 km from here. But on Tuesday morning, when it rose to the danger mark of about 40 feet, there was no stopping it. With one final push, it came crashing out, creating a 500-feet-wide breach. The gushing water flattened about nine villages and at least two bridges in just over six hours before merging with a rivulet 20 km away. By 2 pm, the tank was empty, with about 30 crore cubic feet of water having passed out.Fortunately, a day after, the worst fears of a huge loss of life were proved wrong with no death being reported so far. ‘‘We were saved by a whisker,’’ says Leeladhar Dhaneshwar from Banera, the village which took the first blow.The villagers, now being provided relief, shudder to think what would have happened had the dam burst during the night. It could have been a bigger tragedy than Mowad, a village near Nagpur where 500 people were washed away in their sleep in 1991 after a tank burst.Thousands have lost homes and valuables in yesterday’s tragedy. Crops on 6,000 hectares and hundreds of cattle have been washed away. Hundreds of fishermen have lost their livelihood. No wonder that villagers are angry.Their ire was today vented at the convoy of state Health Minister and area MLA Tamlal Sahare and State Excise Minister Ganpatsingh Uike. Villagers overturned the official vehicles, forcing a police party to be on standby at Katangi.An alarm was raised when the leakage started growing around 7 am and the dam wall gave way within one hour. ‘‘Fortunately, we could immediately evacuate about 18,000 people,’’ said Balaghat Collector Rajesh Rajoura camping here along with SP Jaideep Prasad.Villagers say they had long been warning the officials. ‘‘For the past four days we have been telling them about this leak, but they paid no heed,’’ alleges Dhuplal and Garulal Aghare from Banera.The Irrigation Department refutes the charge. ‘‘There were leakages but they were being plugged from time to time. Yesterday, the leak started at chainage 58, which didn’t have cracks previously,’’ claims Balaghat executive engineer M.G. Choube.The dam has virtually been turned hollow by white ants with huge holes inside the 3.2 km wall. ‘‘We simply can’t know which point they would target next,’’ says Choube. He shows photographs of repair work since 1999.In an indirect admission of negligence, the two ministers have suspended the Irrigation S.D.O., the sub-engineer and the time-keeper and probe by chief engineer Bodhi. Rs 50 lakh has been provided in relief.That may not be enough to regain the villagers’ faith. ‘‘We don’t believe them. Many of them haven’t yet been given the 20 kg rice in exchange for the repair works at the dam,’’ says Vimla Tajir, a teacher engaged in relief work.
