Explainer: Why Punjab can’t escape blame for floods

Cloudbursts and flash floods in Kullu, Mandi and other catchment areas of the Beas in Himachal Pradesh this monsoon season have wreaked havoc in the lower reaches of the river in Punjab. For the past fortnight, floods have led to massive damage of crops and houses in nearly 518 villages in seven districts of the state — Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Ferozepur and Fazilka.The areas along the Sutlej — including parts of Ropar, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana and Shahkot in Jalandhar — have escaped the flood fury, for now, as there has been comparatively less rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the river in Shimla, Bilaspur and Kinnaur.Farmers who are bearing the brunt and have their houses and farms sandwiched between the Dhussi bundh and the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej rivers, rue that the bundh “is a boon for the rest of Punjab, but is unsparing for us. Water from the overflowing rivers hits the bundh and becomes our sorrow”.The 900-km Dhussi bundh was built in 1958-59 along the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi to contain the rivers, control their course and most important, prevent flooding. These are 10-15 feet high bumps mostly made of earth (hence the name dhussi). In some areas as in Sultanpur Lodhi, the top surface of the bundh has been metalled to add to its strength.Sarwan Singh, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee leader from Baupur Mand village of Sultanpur Lodhi, where the flood water level is touching 8-9 feet, says, “As mining is not allowed in our area and desilting is never done by the government, the river bed is now at a higher level than our fields at many points. Since the Dhussi bundh was constructed, our 16 villages in Mand act like a bowl holding water, with Harike the only outlet. Since 2019, it is the third time that our crops have been completely damaged. We will have to live helplessly for two-three months, waiting for the water to recede and meagre compensation to be paid by the government”.He says it is a wrong perception that “we are occupying the river land. Instead, the river has changed its course and is occupying our land. We have ownership rights from the government. The government should intervene and help us reclaim our land”.Ram Pal, an activist from Motla village of Mukerian (Hoshiarpur), says, “The bundh along Beas passing through our villages, including Motla, Haled and Kohlian, was already weak. In addition, there was release of water from the Chakki bridge. Even though there was a warning, flood waters came gushing like a 7-8 feet wall, breaching the bundh. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, during his visit in 2023, had assured strengthening of the bundh but nothing happened and two years on, we are in the same position.”Experts say the main cause of floods in Punjab is that there has been no desilting of river beds since 1960. It was as late as on June 5 this year that a meeting on flood protection measures was convened by the Chief Minister. An allocation of Rs 116 crore was announced. Even before anything could be done with the minimal budget, monsoons had already arrived in Punjab on June 24.Kahan Singh Pannu, former secretary, Water Resources Department, Punjab, pegs the annual cost of maintenance of rivers at Rs 3,000 crore. “Sutlej alone requires Rs 500 crore for its annual maintenance. Owing to no desilting, the capacity of the rivers to hold waters has fallen and hence there have been spillovers in 2019, 2023 and again this year.”He elaborates, “As the river flows downstream, two processes occur — accretion (accumulation of the silt) and retrogression (deposition of the silt). For instance, Sutlej picks silt near Phillaur and deposits it near Harike. In between there are points in the river like Gidderpindi and Yusufpur Darewal near Shahkot in Jalandhar, where the level of accretion becomes the same as retrogression, making it a highly vulnerable point. The depth of the river got raised by 20 feet. So, its water-holding capacity has been reduced and hence there is an immediate spillover in all adjoining villages of Shahkot belt. So far, the area is safe this time.”Former Union minister Brij Bhupinder Lally suggests, “I have always insisted on channelising rivers as the Europeans and Chinese do. While I was in the government in 1996, I got three cunettes (narrow channels) set up at Fatehpur Bhagwan and Rame villages, which were more prone to floods. These were set up under the supervision of the Chief Engineer of the Drainage Department. This was meant to prevent the zigzag action of the river, so it avoids hitting the edges. These helped keep a check on floods for a good time.”Prof Ramesh Kanwar, professor of Agricultural and Water Resources Engineering at Iowa State University, US, who served as Vice-Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, opines, “There have been extreme climatic events this season. If there is 10-11 inches of rainfall a day, whatever designs we engineers create, mother nature fails them all. We need to have enough land cover under watersheds and manage these in a way that much of the rainwater is absorbed, channelled through a good drainage system or goes into the groundwater instead of going as run-off.”Clearly, he adds, “the areas of Punjab which lie along the lower reaches of the river experience flooding as waters have not been managed well in the elevated areas by creating more reservoirs for storage, fishing, recreation and other purposes. Management of waters, especially at a time when there are extreme events happening, is not easy. We’ve just seen bad flooding in Texas”.In the downstream area of Ferozepur, the problem has been compounded due to the poorly-maintained temporary embankments. Areas like Fazilka are the terminals of excess water. The floods have partly damaged paddy, cotton, green fodder and vegetables in 20 villages. Some part of water has flown over to Pakistan. If Pakistan shuts the flood gates at Sulemanki headworks, it can cause havoc due to the back pressure of water. Weak embankments of the ditch-cum- bundh, ill-maintained drains, and lack of cleanliness of canals are the other reasons for the dismal situation. (With inputs from Anirudh Gupta and Praful Chander Nagpal)

Explainer: Why Punjab can’t escape blame for floods

Deepkamal Kaur

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