KASHMIR FLOODS: HISTORY FORGOTTEN

KASHMIR FLOODS: HISTORY FORGOTTEN

I am not God and the rains don’t come and stop on my orders. I have no control over natural calamities. These were the words that were uttered by Chief Minister after the major devastating flood struck the valley in the recent history. It is not the time to put blame on each other. However, we should be ready to introspect that what could have been done and what can be done to avoid such calamities in the near future. The arrogance on the part of administration is that the officials do not take issues seriously which has led to over exploitation of natural resources. This is evident from the fact that land mafia having the blessings of heavy weight Politicians and administrative officials, are selling forest lands in both parts of Jammu and Kashmir and colonies are coming up in such areas. Let us now try to introspect that how this could have been avoided or its impact could have been reduced significantly.

The present system of governance is too much dependent upon the paper work rather than working out the solution of the issues at hand. The files get piled up and officials send the files from one department to another without any progress on ground writing notes after notes. Such is the story of the advisory issued by various agencies from time to time since 2009. The States Flood Control Ministry was aware of this and had issued the warning that the valley is likely to face a major flood catastrophe in next five years and the department has nothing in place to save the human lives and property. The Ministry had reports suggesting that the water discharge can be as high as 150000 cusec and half the amount has struck the valley and most parts of the valley have been inundated. Imagine the kind of destruction had the real estimates in papers come true. It is therefore logical to say the awareness and preparedness should have been according to those estimates.

These estimates further suggested that the most parts of the valley from Khannabal (Islamabad) upto Khadinyar (Varmul) were likely to be hit by the looming flood. Even the reports suggested the valley getting cut off from the rest of the country because of the highway getting washed away.  The reports further suggested the submergence of “The Indira Gandhi Road” leading to Airport, cutting the aerial access to the Valley as well. These studies were put together and as per the various reports these files took gigantic shape being transported from one Ministry to another at the cost of the taxpayers money.

Valley has the history of floods with the most recent and devastating being the flood of 1902. In the reported history it is believed to have left most parts of the valley inundated for more than two years. This was followed by epidemic and water borne diseases with heavy loss of human life. The then ruler took steps and requested engineers from the British Government from Delhi for help. The suggestion that came up was dredging of a 42 kilometre long flood channel which was also constructed from Padshahi Bagh (Srinagar) to Wullar”. This was specifically done to channelize water.  In subsequent years even after these floods came at regular intervals but the effect was not on the earlier scale as steps were taken to avoid the unforeseen.

Since the memories of this horrific disaster was still in the mind of the leaders at the time of Independence, the then state government, headed by Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, in 1948 requested the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru for a dredger. “A dredger was imported by the government of India and handed over to the state in 1950”. Nehru himself in Srinagar commissioned it and this itself suggests its significance.

The lesson here is that we had either forgotten our past or became too inattentive but nature never forgets and never sleeps. The Minister in a report published in Greater Kashmir had shown his helplessness and said that the history clearly gives indication that Srinagar city faces flood every fifty years and the cycle is nearing completion”. The water has no place to outgo in Srinagar city, he said adding Bemina was flood basin where large number of residential and commercial buildings have come up in last ten years. In 1976 government constituted a committee headed by a famous hydrologist, Uppal. The Uppal committee recommended various measures for flood control but unfortunately the successive governments acted contrary to the recommendations. Silt has accumulated in all the major tributaries including Doodh Ganga and the flood channels are blocked, the minister said adding, that even the Srinagar Development Authority has constructed a shopping complex on the flood channel. Further more due to non-maintenance of the flood canal and their siltation over the years decreased its carrying capacity resulting in this catastrophe.

Now despite these studies and reports the question remains what was the Government waiting for? Are our leaders saying that they have forgotten history and have no knowledge about the Kashmir itself? Why no steps were taken to make the three dredgers which had stopped functioning way back in 1982. The administrators and engineers instead of visiting on site are happy in making reports on paper sitting within the four walls of the air conditioned rooms. The work culture is nowhere in any office and the employees considers salary as a gift from the Govt. and bribe as the real income.

Let us all pray at this time of grave crisis and come forward for help and not criticize for what has been done is done. However, the Govt. needs to be reminded of its duties and responsibilities.  

KASHMIR FLOODS 

 Water wars:
It may sound a distant fear, but the fact is that water wars are nearing, warns Hamid Iqbal. 
Ismail Serageldin, Vice President of World Bank in 1995 predicted that “if the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought for water”. It remains the most quoted text when we talk of war and water and though these wars would be fought locally, regionally, nationally but would ultimately transform into global wars.
Jammu and Kashmir is bestowed with the natural resources like lakes, rivers, streams and mountains forming the integral and most important part of its natural beauty, but unfortunately exploited in both parts across the LoC. The dispute began with the complaint of India to UN on 21th August 1957 about Mangla Dam, which the Pakistan was about to build in the disputed territory under his control. India at that time raised objections voicing and explaining it as an exploitation of the territory to the disadvantage of the people of state so as to benefit the people of Pakistan and finally without knowing the will of people of the state entered into agreement with Pakistan which came to be known Indus Water Treaty in April 1960. The Indus river system comprises of three eastern rivers (the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi) and three western rivers (the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab). While India secured the rights over the eastern rivers, Pakistan was given the rights over the western ones and the treaty was brokered by World Bank. But like the earlier agreements right from the infamous Amritsar treaty of 1845, which later came to be known as sale deed agreement, to the signing of the instrument of Accession and giving ink to the number of agreements, this agreement too failed in safeguarding the interest of the people of J&K and it further exposed the confused stand on Kashmir.
The people of Kashmir are not against the welfare of the people of either Pakistan or India. But our argument is just based on the conservation of the habitat and water resources embedded by the almighty in this beautiful land and a corresponding benefit of compensation due to the people of Kashmir.  Ironically thousands of big dams have been constructed by industrialized nation and now they are spending huge amounts of money and energy to investigate how to reduce the negative impacts and thus presumably the present industrializing nations will have to work equally hard in future to reverse the problems brought on by the current phase of Dam construction. We have the examples and proofs where large dams have without exception destroyed the ecology i.e. flora and fauna and the human communities depending on them. Future of large dams by Thayer Scudder provide the beautiful examples of ill conceived hydro electric and water management projects that have created more damage than the benefits.
Arundati Roy in an article had quoted PM Jawahar Lal Nehru while speaking to the villagers who were displaced by the Hirakud Dam in 1948, “if you have to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country”. She wrote, “because I suddenly remembered the tender concern with which the supreme court judges in Delhi (before vacating the legal stay on the further construction of Sardar Sarover Dam) had enquired whether the tribal children in the resettlement colonies would have the children’s park to play in. The lawyers representing the government had hastened to assure them that indeed they would, what’s more, there were seesaws and slides and swings in every park.”
Both India and Pakistan need energy to keep the growth and economy moving. India has identified nearly 15000 MW of energy to be harnessed from river Chenab only and a number of others have been identified on other rivers too. The Baghlihar power project located in the erstwhile Doda district nearly 120 km upstream from Pakistan territory has two stages of 450MW each with a reservoir capacity of 15 MCM and constructed at the whooping cost of 4600 crores more than it was estimated before making it one of the biggest dam in the state and now this time the objections were raised by Pakistan government, and they formally sought the world bank mediation over the violation of Indus Water Treaty, while the Government of J&K lost no time in issuing the statement that it has rights to use the water of its river while the people of state are still unaware of the actual share from the project. The World Bank appointed three experts one each from Switzerland, Australia and Brazil headed by Prof Raymond Lafitte. It is important to mention here that Prof Lafitte is not against construction of big Dams. As per the WB the Neutral Experts finding would be final and binding for both the parties. Shri Ramaswamy Iyer, former secretary Govt of India, in a statement said Pakistan is afraid that the Baglihar could be used as a weapon by India for controlling waters at the time of war. The study which had been carried out by India under which Jhelum and Chenab were recognized as the silt laden rivers because of the erosion of the thick mantle of sand or hills in the entire catchment area and possibly was reason why India had not agreed to construct with ungated spillway as the reservoir would be filled with silt in 3 to 4 years. With the first phase of the dam complete, it had already started showing the signs of destruction to the fragile environment with nearly 30km of the road declared unsafe by the BRO, the organization responsible for maintaining the National Highway 1B and while I was on my way to home I found the entire path different, it was like it used to be. It was new and not very familiar to me the silent valleys were speaking all about ill conceived development, and with the govt not prepared for the task, the entire area of the district remained cut off from the rest of the state for more than 20 days, while the people faced acute shortages of essential and basic amenities, medical and health care facilities as the hospitals were running short of life saving drugs despite big claims of the government.  And when it opened it faced one of the worst ever tragic incident in which nearly 41 people got killed.
In fact we have not learnt lessons from the past. Not too far back in 2005, when we witnessed the worst ever earthquake in which more than 75000 lost their life and more than three million lost their homes, and there have been studies in the world where big dams have been linked to the frequent earthquakes. We need to be more dutiful on the question of embedded natural resources, while the treaties needs to incorporate the rights and will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as a whole. For this our leaders needs to be united at least for this reason in safeguarding the interest and beauty of the mother nature which the God has bestowed upon us, and work together to protect and for bringing peace to this beautiful part of the world. Abdullah bin Umar has said, “I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘All of you are guardians and responsible for your wards and the things under your care. The Imam  (ie. The ruler) is the guardian of his subjects and is responsible for them. A woman is guardian of her husband’s house and is responsible for it. A servant is guardian of his master’s belonging and is responsible for them.’
(Hamid Iqbal is from Department of Botany, A.M.U, Aligarh)

Divisive yet democratic: Political crisis

Divisive yet democratic: Political crisis

Elections are over, results have been declared but the outcome is yet to emanate. The new year has come with the new challenges but lets be optimistic, hope and pray that this year will bring peace to the region and the world. Almost a decade ago I heard Prime Minister Vajpayee speaking about free and fair elections in his Independence day speech. Ever since then it has almost been the routine exercise to tag every elections in Jammu and Kashmir as free and fair. But one may ask “Is this an indirect acknowledgement of the fact that Jammu and Kashmir has never witnessed free and fair elections before 2002”. However, New Delhi has never accpeted that the elections have been manipulated in the past. The think tank in Delhi even compared the heavy participation of the people in the state, to an end of conflict in the region. We wish it was true but we can’t close our eyes and say in tune with the advisors sitting within the four walls of air condtioned room in New Delhi.

There can be no denying of the fact that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have partcipated in huge numbers. However, it has resulted in puzzled, deeply fragmented and fractured mandate resulting in political crisis. This puzzle has brought many new faces to lime light and exposed true colours of almost all political parties. Politics has no religion but uses religion as a tool. The pseudo religious and pseudo regional parties have been exposed by this verdict. The confusion in itself is acknowledgement of the fact that their ideology is not only fractured but deeply devisive. The state of Jammu and Kashmir is sensitive and a different affair alltogether. Here coalitions can not be framed on the agnda of development only. We ask “can a father who lost his son, a wife who lost her husband, and a mother who lost her son” during the course of conflict be consoled on the agenda of good governance and development.

New Delhi is playing with the fire and though it has to some extent been successful in divinding the people of state on the regional lines but again it has proved to be counter productive. In this election the only difference has been, while BJP has been dividing the state on the regional lines based on the greater ideology of “hindutva” the pseudo regional parties have failed miserably to convince people on the idea of greater and united Jammu and Kashmir. The identity of Kashmir is inevitably linked with all the three regions of the state. If Article 370 has benifitted the people of valley, it has equally guaranteed similar rights for rest of the two divisions. However euphoria among the common masses is being created that it is this article which has proved as deterrent in the progress of the state. One may ask then “What has stopped India to register progress in other some of the most backword states. There no such article is stopping them. On the other hand for their political gains they share the same ideology which asked for the mass emigratiom of labourer’s from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh from Maharshtra. However, the same demonized Article-370 has never stopped labourers from any part of India, from working in this state. They don’t need visa to come and work here. This ideology is not only threat to the integrity of our state but to the union of India as well.

Unfortunately Kashmir has a unique history and it is not new to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for being traded. However, we have yet not learnt the lessons and we keep on repeating similar mistakes. During the elections the regional divide was politicized and people were seperated on these lines. After the elections these politicians are now looking for unholy allainces for the sake of power though based on a separate idea of development, good governance and above all relief for the flood affected people. An argument for the sake of allaince is being created that in the absense of any alliance with the centre the state will be deprived of funds. This represents the savage mentality and New Delhi should stop thinking about Jammu and Kashmir as a finacial liability and should honur the democratic credentials by handing over its financial and strategic interests in the region. History is testimony of the fact that every unholy allaiance have proved counter productive, and have resulted in institutionalization of seperatist ideology.

Divisive yet democratic: Political crisis

Water Wars

It may sound a distant fear, but the fact is that water wars are nearing, warns Hamid Iqbal.Ismail Serageldin, Vice President of World Bank in 1995 predicted that “if the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought for water”. It remains the most quoted text when we talk of war and water and though these wars would be fought locally, regionally, nationally but would ultimately transform into global wars.
Jammu and Kashmir is bestowed with the natural resources like lakes, rivers, streams and mountains forming the integral and most important part of its natural beauty, but unfortunately exploited in both parts across the LoC. The dispute began with the complaint of India to UN on 21th August 1957 about Mangla Dam, which the Pakistan was about to build in the disputed territory under his control. India at that time raised objections voicing and explaining it as an exploitation of the territory to the disadvantage of the people of state so as to benefit the people of Pakistan and finally without knowing the will of people of the state entered into agreement with Pakistan which came to be known Indus Water Treaty in April 1960. The Indus river system comprises of three eastern rivers (the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi) and three western rivers (the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab). While India secured the rights over the eastern rivers, Pakistan was given the rights over the western ones and the treaty was brokered by World Bank. But like the earlier agreements right from the infamous Amritsar treaty of 1845, which later came to be known as sale deed agreement, to the signing of the instrument of Accession and giving ink to the number of agreements, this agreement too failed in safeguarding the interest of the people of J&K and it further exposed the confused stand on Kashmir.
The people of Kashmir are not against the welfare of the people of either Pakistan or India. But our argument is just based on the conservation of the habitat and water resources embedded by the almighty in this beautiful land and a corresponding benefit of compensation due to the people of Kashmir.  Ironically thousands of big dams have been constructed by industrialized nation and now they are spending huge amounts of money and energy to investigate how to reduce the negative impacts and thus presumably the present industrializing nations will have to work equally hard in future to reverse the problems brought on by the current phase of Dam construction. We have the examples and proofs where large dams have without exception destroyed the ecology i.e. flora and fauna and the human communities depending on them. Future of large dams by Thayer Scudder provide the beautiful examples of ill conceived hydro electric and water management projects that have created more damage than the benefits.
Arundati Roy in an article had quoted PM Jawahar Lal Nehru while speaking to the villagers who were displaced by the Hirakud Dam in 1948, “if you have to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country”. She wrote, “because I suddenly remembered the tender concern with which the supreme court judges in Delhi (before vacating the legal stay on the further construction of Sardar Sarover Dam) had enquired whether the tribal children in the resettlement colonies would have the children’s park to play in. The lawyers representing the government had hastened to assure them that indeed they would, what’s more, there were seesaws and slides and swings in every park.”
Both India and Pakistan need energy to keep the growth and economy moving. India has identified nearly 15000 MW of energy to be harnessed from river Chenab only and a number of others have been identified on other rivers too. The Baghlihar power project located in the erstwhile Doda district nearly 120 km upstream from Pakistan territory has two stages of 450MW each with a reservoir capacity of 15 MCM and constructed at the whooping cost of 4600 crores more than it was estimated before making it one of the biggest dam in the state and now this time the objections were raised by Pakistan government, and they formally sought the world bank mediation over the violation of Indus Water Treaty, while the Government of J&K lost no time in issuing the statement that it has rights to use the water of its river while the people of state are still unaware of the actual share from the project. The World Bank appointed three experts one each from Switzerland, Australia and Brazil headed by Prof Raymond Lafitte. It is important to mention here that Prof Lafitte is not against construction of big Dams. As per the WB the Neutral Experts finding would be final and binding for both the parties. Shri Ramaswamy Iyer, former secretary Govt of India, in a statement said Pakistan is afraid that the Baglihar could be used as a weapon by India for controlling waters at the time of war. The study which had been carried out by India under which Jhelum and Chenab were recognized as the silt laden rivers because of the erosion of the thick mantle of sand or hills in the entire catchment area and possibly was reason why India had not agreed to construct with ungated spillway as the reservoir would be filled with silt in 3 to 4 years. With the first phase of the dam complete, it had already started showing the signs of destruction to the fragile environment with nearly 30km of the road declared unsafe by the BRO, the organization responsible for maintaining the National Highway 1B and while I was on my way to home I found the entire path different, it was like it used to be. It was new and not very familiar to me the silent valleys were speaking all about ill conceived development, and with the govt not prepared for the task, the entire area of the district remained cut off from the rest of the state for more than 20 days, while the people faced acute shortages of essential and basic amenities, medical and health care facilities as the hospitals were running short of life saving drugs despite big claims of the government.  And when it opened it faced one of the worst ever tragic incident in which nearly 41 people got killed.
In fact we have not learnt lessons from the past. Not too far back in 2005, when we witnessed the worst ever earthquake in which more than 75000 lost their life and more than three million lost their homes, and there have been studies in the world where big dams have been linked to the frequent earthquakes. We need to be more dutiful on the question of embedded natural resources, while the treaties needs to incorporate the rights and will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir as a whole. For this our leaders needs to be united at least for this reason in safeguarding the interest and beauty of the mother nature which the God has bestowed upon us, and work together to protect and for bringing peace to this beautiful part of the world. Abdullah bin Umar has said, “I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘All of you are guardians and responsible for your wards and the things under your care. The Imam  (ie. The ruler) is the guardian of his subjects and is responsible for them. A woman is guardian of her husband’s house and is responsible for it. A servant is guardian of his master’s belonging and is responsible for them.’
(Hamid Iqbal is from Department of Botany, A.M.U, Aligarh)

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2009/Apr/18/water-wars-16.asp