A thought provoking article. Thank you very much. However, while dredging is an option ( albeit very expensive, as brought out in the article) to improve navigability of the river, but isn’t excessive silting due to deforestation and dumping of solid waste into the river by towns like Srinagar, are the main reasons for this malaise? I am sure that has also been factored by the authorities.The long time dredging of Hoogly to save Calcutta port has not really worked, the siting and development of Haldia as an alternative port, besides the Farakka barrage to divert water to Hoogly ( to flush out silt) has also not worked. Maybe afforestation and dredging both need to be carried out till the situation stabilises.

“The zero effect is the fall and number one brings the individual back to his original position. Thus fortunes are not steady and many fluctuations mark their life’s sojourn.”

Wingco Thomas’s suggestion is certainly a well thought of & simple solution to a long standing problem which I have seen & experienced during my childhood days of the 1950s when my father was doing G1 19 Div. in Baramullah—-the old Jhelum river could break its banks at the drop of a hat & create chaos.

Fond regards,
Zal Kabraji.

Some dredging has been done at Srinagar. The important thing is that the public is now aware of the need for dredging. Earlier, the clamour was for a grandiose project for a second flood channel. You can see the existing flood channel on Google maps and satellite. What it does is to divert part of the flood water from Srinagar to the rural areas. The reasoning is that there is less loss of life and property when a rural area is flooded than when a city is flooded.

Educating public opinion is far more difficult and important than the technical aspects of flood control. For eg, the people of Chennai have not yet taken any significant steps towards flood prevention. They are only interested in rescue and relief. IIT-M is right next to the Adyar river which flooded in Dec 2015. They have done nothing to remove the sand bar at the mouth of the Adyar river. “So what if the Adyar river floods again ? We have rescue teams available with the latest GPS and mobile apps.”

I once read the forewood to a text book on Political Science. It claimed that Political science is the highest science because all major decisions are political. Should we go to Mars ? Should we permit stem cell research ? Should we permit cloning of humans ? Should we have gun control ?

The US Army Corps of Engineers does some dredging in the Mississippi basin. But it is secondary. They have created thousands of miles of levees. Yes, it is standard practice for flood control engineers to breach the very levees they built. Thereby, they divert part of the flood from an urban area to a rural area. The urbanites have more votes. Oh yes, they rebuild the levees they destroy.

When we talked about this (2-3 years ago?) I would have never guessed that politicians would end up making this choice. What happened here? How did they end up making this decision?

Maj Gen Surjit Singh sends me periodic emails about all the updates to the amolak blogs, but I was not aware about any developments after your article written right after the flooding.

Do you think the US Army Corps of Engineers will hear or learn about this solution? When I lived in Clarksville, Tenn for a year, I learned that the city was at an elevation of 565 ft above MSL; the Cumberland River wound its way back and forth across the state including Nashville and Clarksville and emptied into the Mississippi at the west end of the state. I estimated that from Clarksville to the ocean via the two rivers was about 500 miles or so, and that meant the river dropped on average just over 1 ft every mile. You cannot detect even a ripple on the river, it flows so slowly.

Our Army Corps of Engineers has built levees and retaining banks to contain the floods from the Mississippi river, but when the water level rose too high after one rainy season, the Corps broke the very same levees they had built and flooded the surrounding farmlands to protect dams and urban areas downstream. (I never did learn if they rebuilt those levees again!). This is a shining example of our American genius at work.

3007=10=1=FAME

10 – TEN
Number ten signifies, name, confidence, faith, fame and honour and is indicative of “Rise and fall” as the “Wheel of Fortune” must rise go high up and fall, to rise again. The zero effect is the fall and number one brings the individual back to his original position. Thus fortunes are not steady and many fluctuations mark their life’s sojourn.

MY THIRTEEN OBSERVATIONS OF LIFE

1. Sharing of knowledge. Whatever one knows in ones life’s short sojourn must be shared.
2. Be positive. Have thoughts of a glass half full, let it not be half empty, nor be too optimistic, to say that it is full.
3. Never be a total pessimist. As when ‘’NO is in one’s ‘pocket’ and you know it well, try and convert it into a YES, by your personal efforts.
4. Ask and you shall know, ………………………..

Congrats Thomas ji
sgmt ….Colls ex EASY 1956/15 NDA