Kalahandi yet to wake up to approaching monsoon

Expressbuzz, 9th June, 2009

BHAWANIPATNA: Monsoon is just a few days away but the district administration is yet to take any measures to tackle flash floods that Kalahandi faces every year.
The surplus water of Indravati project after meeting power generation and irrigation requirements is released into the river Hati that merges with the river Tel. Due to this, water level in both the rivers remains high throughout the year and with addition of more water from the catchment areas during monsoon, flash floods become a regular phenomenon. This has changed the map of several villages on both sides of the river Tel over the years. Udanti, Sagada, Ret and Utei rivers also face floods as the excess water of these rivers cannot be discharged into the Tel during monsoon.
Despite this, no tangible steps have been taken by successive governments for a permanent solution to the problem and even adequate funds are not being released for temporary restoration of the existing breaches. No embankments have even been constructed at Jayapatna where the river Hati merges with the Tel. As per a survey conducted by Kalahandi Irrigation Division two years back, embankments need to be constructed along the 599-km-long banks of both Tel and Udanti rivers. The existing 23.8-km-long embankment along the Tel and 22.2 km embankment along the Udanti, constructed in 70s, are lying dilapidated sans regular maintenance. There are several vulnerable points in the embankments of both the rivers that need immediate repair. Some of these points are Gundri over the Tel left bank in Golamunda block, Amathola, Kesinga near railway bridge, Suknabhata, Digsara, Belkhandi, Amathola and Talmala over the Tel, Mahaling, Chapria, Masigaon, Kuliapada and Borda over the Udanti.
Besides regular floods, villages like Balichada, Biripur, Matikhal, Karmeli, and Temra under Kalampur block face the bigger problem of river erosion. The spurs constructed over the Hati near Balichada in 2004 under the NREGS, have been damaged now. The irrigation division had also proposed construction of a slope protection stone bund and repairing the damaged spurs at Balichada but due to funds constraint, no headway has been made in this regard. A master plan was submitted by the irrigation division to the chief engineer, Lower Mahanadi basin in July 2007 for permanent restoration of the damaged embankments at Kuliapada, Chapria and Masigaon over the Udanti and Gundri over the Tel at an estimated cost of Rs 3. 45 crore. However, only Rs 31 lakh was allotted for Flood Damage Restoration (FDR) works for 2008-2009 financial year.
Kalahandi Irrigation Division Executive Engineer B. K. Rao said with the available resources, all possible measures will be taken this year for controlling floods.