environment and sustainable development: improving systems...
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Environment and Sustainable
development: Improving
Systems Performance
Floods in Kosi
• Failure of
– Programme
– Policy
– Implementation of program
– Monitoring
Flood 2008 - Impact
• The flood killed close to 1000 people and forced
nearly 30 lakh people from their homes in Bihar. No
cattle dead, main economic soruce of livelihood, not
known.
• Widespread disease and fear of epidemic
• More than 300,000 houses were destroyed and at
least 340,000 hectares (840,000 acres) of crops were
damaged.
• Crops worth over Rs.1.5 billion damaged and
destroyed.
2008 Floods – Response• National Disaster Declared
• Government announced USD 230 million
• Announced construction of hazard safe houses for 100,000
families.
• World Bank Supported the above program with USD 220 million
commitment.
• Chief minister asked for 145 billion rehabilitation package.
• Instituted inquiry commission under Justice Walia
• OUTCOME:
• Out of a total 100,000 houses to be constructed by the
Government in the Kosi region comprising Madhepura, Saharsa
and Supaul districts, only 12,500 were erected till February 2014.
• Justice Walia commission report tabled in 2014 (after FIVE
YEARS) identified administrative failure and holds government
responsible.
Who’s at fault?
• KOSI for being the way it is – Bihar’s Sorrow
• Government – national, state, local, etc.
• Zero accountability – authoriies responsible for it go
left untouched.
• Lack of preparedness
• Lack of communication to the downstream
population at the time of the embankment breach
• Corruption – poor quality material used in
construction of barrages/dams and poor upkeep.
• Zero value of human life..that sustains CHALTA HAI
ATTITUDE – Almost always last minute response.
• Who else………God??
Nature’s Fury or Man made
Disaster?• Kosi is named as Sorrow of Bihar!!
• Since 1963, Kosi has breached 7 times and 2008 at
kusaha was its 8th and most impactful.
• All the earlier breaches had occurred downstream of the
barrage. But this year the breach happened upstream of
the barrage and the flow was less than what normally is
during floods.
• The Kosi has an annual silt load of 94,400 acre feet. The
embankment, which was build to hold 0.95 million cusecs
of water, gave way when water was less than 0.14 million
cusecs
• The day the breach occurred, the water in the Kosi was
0.134 million cusecs at the breach point, while usually the
river has 0.4 million cusecs during floods
Let’s meet KOSI
Some Info about KOSI
• Kosi flows between the boundary of Nepal and India. It
origninates in Nepal
• It is the largest tributaries of Ganga. The river along with its eight
tributaries drains an area of 69,300 sq km before it meets ganga.
• The Kosi river has an exceptionally high sediment yield of 0.43
milliontines/year/km2 which is accommodated in a very narrow
alluvial plains, almost one-fifth of the upland area.
• It shows evidence of lateral channel shifting exceeding 120 km
(75 mi) during the past 250 years, via at least twelve major
channels. The river, which flowed near Purnea in the 18th
century, now flows west of Saharsa.
• River gradient ranges from more than 10 meters/km for major
upper tributaries in the mountains to as little as 6 cm/km as the
lower Kosi nears the Ganga.
Info Cond….
• The Kosi alluvial fan is one of the
largest in the world, covering
some 15,000 km² and extending
180 km from the outermost
foothills of the Himalayas to the
Ganga river valley.
• Flood waters naturally spread out
over the surface of this cone.
Flows over 25,000 m³/s have been
measured where the Kosi exits the
Himalayan foothills, enough to
create a flow of water 30 km wide.
At this rate, in one week enough
water would accumulate to cover
the entire megafan to a depth of
1.5 meters.
why it happened?
• Embankments are the culprits. What we think is a solution has
turned to be the problem.
• The use of embankments to contain the Kosi has prevented it
from spreading its silt load of 92.5 million cubic metres.
• It has resulted in raising the river bed by four metres and
prevented adjoining channels from draining into the river and
caused permanent waterlogging in an 8360 sq km area.
• As a result, one million people in 380 villages face flood fury
every year and eight million are waterlogged.
• Embankments in fact have increased the area prone to
flooding from 2.5 million hectares in the 1950s to 6.8 million
hectares
Possible Alternates• Building additional dams in Nepal
• Increase the capacity of existing
Dams?
• Build more embankments
downstream
• Building diversion channels
downstream to divert extra water?
• Extensive soil erosion and
landslides in its upper catchment
have produced a silt yield of about
19 m³/ha/year (10 cu yd/acre/yr),
one of the highest in the world.
• In 1962, when Bihar had 160
kilometres of embankments the
flood-prone area was 2.5 million
ha. In 2002, it had 3,340 km
embankments and 6.9 million ha
of flood-prone area.
• Embanking the Kosi has led to a
rise of 2 m in its bed in the lower
reaches within 30 years of
embankment construction.
• Building a dam in Nepal is not a
solution because constructing it
will take 20 years and the huge silt
load will leave it choked in no
time.
Alternates Contd…
• After the Floods, work begun to repair the breach and bring the river
back to its "old" route, within the embankment. But can it be done? What
is the larger picture here?
• Kosi has been changing course since 1736 and has moved westward by
120 km. Additionally, due to higher silt and sediment load, the river will
continue to change its course.
Possible Alternates
• Since, Kosi has decisively changed
course there is a good opportunity to
apply ecologically sound practices such
as allowing the river to flow freely.
• What does this entail?
Benefits of the new approach
• Let the river flow in the new direction depositing silt on its course
• Understanding the river behavior ( which is flowing for almost
200,000 years) and to apply this knowledge in the context of
human settlements.
• With the embankments gone, the Kosi can connect once again
with natural drainage channels.
• Silt through distribution will enrich the soil. The river can thus
become the driver of a water-based economy in which surpluses
are put to use to intensive agriculture.
• Not long time ago, this is how the life was in North Bihar. Water
culture of North Bihar knew how to live with its floods. It did not
try to hold its rivers, rather wove around them a life of boats and
fisheries and suitable crops.
• Water based economy will trigger innovative and appropriate
solutions for local needs.
Benefits of the new approach
• Engineering solutions to tame rivers have deprived north Bihar of
the most fertile lands in the world, turning it from the cradle of
civilization to one of the poorest regions of India
Way forward for Auditors
• Will building additional dams and barrages will do any
good?
• Major incremental costs and longer timelines for
building new dams
• Permanently altering topography putting a large
landmass under risk of flooding
• C/B Analysis
Yamuna in Delhi
• Failure of
– Programme
– Policy
– Implementation of program
– Monitoring
Some Info
• Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387
metres on the south western slopes of Banderpooch peaks in the
uppermost region of the Lower Himalayas in Uttarakhand, it
travels a total length of 1,376 kilometers (855 mi) and has a
drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi),
40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin, before merging with the
Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad
• Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna waters. With an
annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres (cbm) and usage
of 4,400 cbm (of which irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the
river accounts for more than 70 per cent of Delhi’s water
supplies.
• A stretch of around 22 km in Delhi contributes 70 per cent of the total
pollution load of the river.
Some Info
• The government has so far spent over Rs. 5,500 crore on
cleaning the river as part of Yamuna Action Plan. Many sewage
treatment plants have been set up including 17 in Delhi. But
these plants can only treat less than half the total waste pumped
in each day.
• As per the Delhi Jal Board, which is responsible for managing
the city’s sewage, 680 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage
is produced, while its treatment capacity is 594.72 MGD.
However, DJB is able to utilize only 60% of the capacity, letting
millions of Gallons flow untreated sewage in Yamuna through 19
canals.
• Delhi Fresh Water Supply - Raw water is being made available
to Delhi from Ganga River (240 MGD), Yamuna River (310
MGD), Bhakhra Beas Management Board (140 MGD). About 115
MGD of ground water is being explored through Ranney Wells
and Tube Wells of Delhi Jal Board.
Some Info
• Delhi requires close to 4200 Million Liters (ML) every day, while it
gets supplied only 3200 ML from all the sources. Delhi loses
more than 40 percent of the its water due to leakages from its
network of water supply pipelines. Thus, the city effectively ends
up with just 1900 ML of water every day for a population of more
than 160 lakhs, providing just 120 liters of water on an average
for a person.
Future Plan
• The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) 2031 sewerage master
plan envisages Rs. 25,000 crore to be spent to
upgrade the sewerage network
• New reservoirs planned are: Renuka Dam on River
Giri, a tributary of Yamuna in Sirmaur District of
Himachal Pradesh, Kishau Dam on river Tons, also a
tributary of Yamuna river in Uttrakhand and Lakhwar-
Vyasi Dam on river Yamuna near Lakhwar village in
District Dehradun of Uttrakhand
• 2 More dams planned in Kumaon region of
Uttarakhand
Sustainable Alternates• Immediate and necessary step: Fixing the leaky supply lines
could augment the supply by almost 40%. Acc. to estimates this
could be done in less 600 crore. This water amount is equivalent
to amount Renuka Dam will supply at its peak capacity. The cost
of building Renuka Dam is estiamated close to 3000 crore.
Innovative Alternates:
• the potential of the Yamuna floodplains in the National Capital
Territory of Delhi and show that there can be an annual yield of
600-900 MCM of water, which is three-fourths the total water
supply to Delhi. This makes it an invaluable natural resource
potentially worth about Rs 6000-9000 crores a year of non-
invasive use.
• It can’t happen unless Yamuna Flood Plain is not freed from
encroachment and commercial- residential development. Many
of the colonies – Mayurvihar, Patparganj, etc. have come up on
the flood plain. The NGT has alread issued order to stop further
encroachment.
Sustainable Alternates
• Delhi alone has 900 such water bodies; together they
can store approx. 15-20 billion litres of rainwater. But
most of these water bodies are dry, silted and/or filled.
According to national capital region planning board,
Delhi can capture 364 billion liters of Rainwater
Runoff .
Susatinable Alternates
• What is the cost involved in such option?
• C/B analysis between conventional
approach vis-a vis new options?
What's common among these
disasters
• Design of policy
• Design of Programme
• Implementation
• Monitoring issues
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