(Courtesy The Tribune, Aug.26,93, By Pritam Singh)

The recent floods in Punjab have caused surprise because the state is supposed to be well equipped to face such an eventuality. There are two mighty dams on the rivers Sale) and Beas and a third on the Ravi is under construction, The Bhakra and Pong dams are purportedly the best guarantee against floods.

It is presumed that Punjab learnt a lesson from the devastation caused by the 1988 floods and prescribed a drill to face the floods. It is iearnt that a review meeting was held on June 21, 1993 under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary and it was claimed that the state was prepared to face floods. A vigilant administration cannot be caught napping because the weather forecasts are fairly accurate nowadays, especially after the advent of the INSATs and Supercomputers. Moreover, there is the Indian Remote Sensing Agency and the Remote Sensing Center at PAU Ludhiana to buttress the forecasts of the Metro logical Department. Therefore, before agreeing with the Chicf Minister of Punjab that “God is responsible” a little investigation is called for.

“NO CONFIDENCE” IN PUNJAB: The Bhakra and Beas dam projects were conceived as interstate projects and executed as such. But after the reorganization of Punjab, the first attitude that emanated from the Center was that of “no confidence” in the newbom state. Consequently the control and management of both these dams was taken over by the Cen ter, Under section 79(6) of the.

Punjab Reorganization Act the BhakraBeas Management Board was entrusted with the dams. The BBMB was put under the control of the Central Government and was to comply with such directions as from time to time were given to it by that government, Punjab is the only state which was singled out by the Center on reorganization for this treatment, Besides the chairman there are two other whole time members. The Member (Power) is from Punjab and Member (Irrigation) from Haryana. These Members are the eyes and cars” of their respective state governments. The post of Member (Power) remained vacant for more than one year in 1991-92 and the state govemment did not take any interest in getting the vacancy filled. Though the usual term of a whole time Member is three years, when a new incumbent is ultimately appointed he is given a term of only one year by the Central Govemment

Spilling Policy:  The Member (Power), on joining informed the stale government that due to the policy of over conservation of water in Bhakra and Pond damns there was “spilling” of water every altemate year, without making use of it for irrigation or power generation with a view to power that there is surplus water which is not being allowed to flow to Haryana and Rajasthan to meet their requirements. He further pointed out that due to this policy of reservoir management, there was higher probability of water being “spilled” during the rainy season and thus increasing the possibility of floods in Punjab.

 LEVELS HIGHER THAN MINIMUM: He further pointed out that during the past four years the minimum levels of the reservoirs reached were higher by 28 feet to 60 feet in the case of Pong and 16 feet to 110 feet in the case of Bhakra, as compared to the minimum levels reached before 1986-87.

But his communications did not bestir the slate government. When he persisted in his efforts he was rebuffed into silence. He then asked the state government that a new incumbent should be appointed in time as the state had already suffered a huge loss due to nonrepresentation on the BBMB.

PUNJAB GOYT’S EYES, EARS CLOSED: Though under the rules before a new member is appointed the current one should continue in office, this was not done, nor has a new incumbent been so far appointed. And thus the Punjab Government, in the absence of its “eyes and cars”, is blissfully ignorant of the goingson in the BBMB.

The Punjab State Electricity Board Engineers Association submitted a paper both to the State and the Central governments” giving detailed facts and figures about the “spilling” resorted to by BBMB, and further pointed out that “unimaginative and poor planning of the BBMB has caused a loss of about Rs 175 crore to the country in terms of loss of power generation, etc.” While on the one hand Punjab was reeling under power shortage and trying to fill the gap by resorting to expensive thermal and diesel generation on the other the BBMB was “spilling” water even during the filling period. Had the water stored at the Bhakra and Pong dams been fully utilized during the depletion period, it would have increased power generation. It was further pointed out that, inter alia, for most part of the year “adequate quantum of water is not available for both the Anandpur Sahib and the Mukerian Hydro Electric Power Houses for operating these to optimum generation levels”. According to the figures available, “the total generation at these power houses is only about 26 per cent of the optimum level” But these observations also fell on deaf ears.

FILLING, DEPLETION PERIODS: The capacity of the Bhakra reservoir is 1685 feet and that of Pong 1400 feet. But after the 1988 floods the capacity of the former has been fixed at 1680 feet and that of the latter at 1390 feet. The filling period is May 21 to September 20 in the case of Bhakra and June 21 to September 20in the case of Pong. The depletion period in both cases is September 21 10 May 20, The depletion level in the case of Bhakra is 1460 feet and that of Pong 1260 feet.

There was no rain worth the name in May and June this year The Indian Remote Sensing Agency in its last forecast placed the likely inflows at 14,5 lakh cusec days. It is worth mentioning at this stage that the Bhakra and Pong reservoirs were not planned in such a manner as to also act as over storage reservoirs.

DEAD STORAGE LEVEL: The operation of reservoirs as designed in the project envisages that the reservoirs will start from the dead storage level at the beginning of the filling period and then again come to the dead storage level at the end of depleuon period, Now it is to be noted that on July 6 this year the levels of the Bhakra and Pong reservoirs stood around 1,539 feet and 1300 feet, respectively. It is to be funher noted that after the deluge the figures which have been dished out by the BBMB compare the levels in both dams after the floods with those of last year. This is nothing but jugglery of figures, The relevant comparison should be with the minimum depletion level, If a comparison is made of the minimum depletion levels of both dams, it will become clear that the level was higher by 79 feet in the Bhakra reservoir and by 40 feet in the Pong reservoir.

DEAD STORAGE NOT ACHIEVED: It is a matter of common knowledge that when the releases are normal during the depletion period, the bed of it Sutlej is almost dry. There is no significant flow of water in the Beas either. There have been persistent reports in a section of the Press that the BBMB has been releasing unscheduled water at night, resulting in floods downstream. Of course the state govemment and the BBMB have both vehemently denied these allegations. But the denials have failed to convince the people, One thing is clear: had the reservoirs been depleted to the dead storage level, then whatever may have been the quantum of rains the devastation could not have been of the level which shook the state.

It is claimed that 50 per cent of the total annual average rainfall was recorded from July 8 to 12 alone, After reaching the minimum depletion level so much storage space becomes available that the entire precipitation of rainfall could have been easily contained. One thing is very intriguing, How come there was good water flow in the canal system even during the heavy rainfall. Surely it could not have been for irrigation. The Chief Engineer (Canals), Punjab, stated m a Press note that though the capacity of the Bhakra canal is 11,250 cusees, the releases were of the order of 6,962 cusecs only. But the question arises, why was even this much water released when there were heavy rains in the whole of the state?

SAFETY IGNORED:

There is so much obsession with over corall servati on and carryover that even safety norms of the maintenance of the dams are being ignored. The Beas Design Organization, in its maintenance instructions issued for intake works, and the Dam Safety Committee recommended inspection and maintenance of intake works at least once in five years, or when required earlier, The recommended maintenance works were carried out at Pong as follows: Pen Stock1 204.88 to 5.5.88 Pen Stock [I] 20.49.85 to 15.5.85 Pen Stock [l]_ 10.2.88 to 21.3.88 [tis crystal clear from the above that the inspection and maintenance of all the pen stocks is due, but that of Pen Stock IT is the longest overdue, The BBMB however, is ignoring this. An inspection cannot be carried out unless the water level is lowered below 1,290 feet, but the level was 1333,02 on April 1,1993 and 1326.98 on April 25. An inspection could have been possible if the reservoir level had been brought down to lower than 1290 feet on May 1. But this did not happen.

Let us concede that the BbMB is doing all this the good intention of conserving water for Haryana and Rajasthan, But the way to hell for Punjab is paved with the good intentions of the BBMB. God forbid if one of the pen stocks collapses due to bad maintenance. At Ieast half of Punjab would be swept away by flood waters. Why is Punjab’s safety being ignored so blatantly?

COVERUP OPERATIONS:

When a mishap occurs, the whole establishment is engaged in a cover-up operation. In 1988, when floods caused colossal loss of life and property, the Punjab Government, in order to absolve the BBMB, stated in its memorandum to the Central Govemment: “While efforts were made by the BBMB to contain the flood fury by adjusting the filling and releases in the Bhakra and Pong Dams, the scope of such adjustments was necessarily limited on account of the dams having already attained full _capacity levels by September 20,1988, as per their normal filling programme”

 

What the state government failed to point out was the BBMB was engaged in over conservation, ignoring the normal drill which requires that the depletion level has to be brought to the dead storage level before the start of the filling period. What has happened this year can be unraveled only after a high-level judicial inquiry.

PREPARING FOR FLOODS:

 Let us now tum our attention to the state government’s drill to prepare for floods, It has been claimed that the “vulnerable sites” in the drainage divisions were identified and the villages likely to be affected in the event of floods were listed district wise, How far this claim to justified has been revealed by the subsequent events in which 321 human lives were lost and property worth thousands of crores was destroyed.

After the deluge the Chief Minister blamed the Drainage Department for not clearing choked drains. He claimed in his statement of August 1 that the drains had been cleared and river bundhs strengthened. Now the question arises, if the task was so simple why did the state government fail to do this before the onset of floods? All we had were claims that the state machinery was fully geared to face the floods.

SYL AND BHAKRA CANALS; Floods in Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala districts were also because the natural flow of water in SYL canal was blocked near Kapoori where it enters Haryana. It has been reported that a CRPF picket was permanently set up there by the Haryana Government to stop Punjab officials from clearing the blockage. This happened in 1988 as well. Why this tangle was not taken up with Haryana government and resolved is for the state government to explain. It is a moot point whether SYL should be completed, Would it not be wiser to deepen and broaden the Bhakra Mainline Canal to allow water to Haryana as and when the dispute is finally settled. Now the SYL runs parallel to the Bhakra canal in Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. Experience shows that breach in one canal causes a breach in the other. It spells ruin for the people of these districts. Moreover, in case of war, this situation can prove very dangerous. The people, instead of fighting the enemy, would be busy fighting floods.

THEIN DAM AND RAVI WATERS:

The Thein Dam was conceived more than two decades ago. Under the Punjab Reorganization Act the Ravi waters were not to be shared. But now the Center is insisting that the Ravi waters should also be shared. The dispute drags on and this explains the delay in the construction of the Thein. The floods in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts cannot be controlled unless the Thein Dam is completed. But it is a moot point whether Punjab will ultimately succumb to the pressure for sharing the Ravi waters, even though such an arrangement would be outside the ambit of the Punjab Reorganization Act.

GIVE DAMS TO PUNJAB: Punjab is a riparian state, Unless it has full control over its rivers it will continue to be periodically devastated with floods. A flood is a great leveler, It does not excuse cven those who are engaged in cover-up operations. There is need to abolish the BBMB and entrust the control of the dams to Punjab. If before the reorganization wale and power was distributed to the beneficiary States Le. Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh then the same arrangement should have allowed to continue as there was no complaint of any injustice, In case of a dispute the Central Government could intervene as is: being done in the case of other interstate disputes. Why Punjab was singled out for this special treatment is anybody’s guess.

The author is a retired IAS officer settled in Chandigarh.

Article extracted from this publication >>  September 17, 1993