Floods fueled by climate change and unplanned urbanisation have wreaked havoc in India, but authorities are failing to take notice.

This year has seen the highest recorded rainfall in quite some time. Rainfall records have broken in different regions of the country, and all over the world. The year has seen a spate of extreme climate events, and their toll on life and property has been devastating. India, particularly, has witnessed floods in nine states. Monsoons this year have been heavy, and the damage caused by flooding unprecedented.

India has seen massive flooding in Bihar, West Bengal, Gujarat, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Odisha, and Jharkhand. The city of Mumbai is still under torrential rain, and floods there had claimed 14 lives till the end of August. 
Climate scientists all over the world have attributed the cause of this heavy flooding to both climate change as well as rapid and unplanned urbanisation. Floods have affected neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as well, and the death toll in South Asia is currently estimated to be about 1,200, with 40 million people affected.

In Bihar, one of the worst affected states, rainfall patterns have seen a dramatic shift. The month of August saw very high rainfall this year. Last year, however, rainfall in August was much lower than expected. The departure in rainfall from the expected amount is quite different this year and last year in the 19 flood hit districts of Bihar.

Global warming leads to a rise in temperature, which causes sea surfaces to be hotter. This results in more moisture in the atmosphere, and thus causes heavier rainfall. The ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture is directly impacted from an increase in temperature. For every half a degree celsius in warming, there is about a 3% increase in atmospheric moisture content. This phenomenon is defined in the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. So while all of this causes heavier rains, the poor infrastructure and planning of rapidly expanding urban spaces leads to wide scale loss of life and property. Cities lack proper drainage facilities. They have expanded into marshes, and wetlands, and other such areas which absorb water.

Rising temperatures also lead to melting of glaciers, such as the ones in the Himalayas. This causes an increase in the water levels, and consequently an increase in the risk of flooding.

The worst affected by these climate change fuelled disasters are the poor. Informal settlements often develop in sites which are under greater threat of flooding. These settlements also have weaker stability and no proper drainage facilities.

In Gujarat, the floods impacted 6.44 lakh farmers in 17 districts. The crop damage is estimated to be worth Rs 867 crore. In Assam, at least 160 people died, and 61,923 people had to be displaced.  In West Bengal, 1.67 lakh people had to be accommodated in relief camps, and at least 48 people lost their lives.

Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was quoted by The Guardian saying flooding will worsen.  “This is what we can see happening already, with rainfall patterns becoming more erratic and unpredictable. The scientific consensus seems to be that while the overall precipitation across the entire year is not likely to go either up or down significantly due to climate change, the pattern of rainfall will change significantly with greater precipitation in the monsoon season and less in the dry season. Paradoxically, this will probably lead to more flooding in the wet season and more droughts in the dry season, even if the overall amount of rainfall across the year does not change very much.

“The bottom line seems to be that we have already entered the Anthropocene era, in which human activities have cumulatively resulted in changing global weather patterns as well as other global phenomenon such as forest fires and sea level rises.”

Third world countries, which are responsible for a fraction of the CO2 emissions causing global warming, face the brunt of its consequences as extreme climate events are seen largely in the tropics. So while the leaders of the free world continue debating weather global warming is even real, people continue losing their lives. Some scientists say it may already be too late to reverse the impact of global warming. Very few, however, seem to be bothered to even try.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

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The Maldharis had taken over one side of the road with their buffaloes as self-possessed shelter. The relief truck before me was flinging bundles of used clothes at the local people that eagerly waited for such relief material carrying vehicles. I saw that the pillion riders on a motor cycle too could manage to fetch one such bundle of clothes and shoved the bundle in an empty travel bag. It was a common sight that the local people quickly selected if they found something interesting before throwing away the rest which lay spread on the roads.

The highway from Radhanpur to Byavar had a great deal of police presence as there were numerous politicians visiting area. We reached village Runi of Kankrej area. The village has presence of the Jain temple that has its property spread in 20 bighas of land with surrounding compound wall. Part of the wall had collapsed. Across the road, opposite the temple, is the Dalit area, having living quarters of leather workers and the scavengers. Most homes had one living room of barely eight feet by eight feet with an open extension with an overhead roof serving as the veranda. Some people had managed to empty their homes of the sludge and sand that had filled the living room up to the ceiling. The water levels had risen in this area at the level of about 13 feet from the ground. People had taken shelter on the top floor of the village co-operative society or over the small terraces, braving the rain and winds for about 30 hours before the army had reached them with some biscuits.

We could see on one room house with terrace that a young Dalit man had lost all his post graduate degree certificates along with two children in the primary school, whose books were drying on the terrace tarred with dirt and water.

It was in 1979, I had volunteered as a college student in Morbi after the Machhu dam had burst. We, as volunteers, helped the locals to clear their homes of the sludge. Here, I saw in the Runi village that there were no volunteers helping the local people. There were only visitors and relief distributors. The rich in the village had access to the JCB machines as Dalits waited to hire tractors to dump away the rotten grain, beddings and other soiled material from their quarters. The Government did not pay them the rents of these hired tractors.

The scavenger families were still stuck with their quarters filled with sludge as many of the old people were unable to clear it themselves in absence of their young children away as migrant labor force. An old woman had the assistance of her two sons-in-law who had come specially to help their mother-in-law to clear her one-room home, as there was no other place for her today. An old man was sitting in one corner. He had lost his buffalo. He earned his living by playing drum and making supda, the caste-based occupations.

Each Dalit family I visited had lost an average of 800 kilograms of grain that they had stored, part of the community system of storing one year of ration for the family. As the trucks distributing packed food occupied the narrow village road, the locals refused to take the food as they were tired of the same. They were worried about cleaning of their homes of the sludge fearing the epidemic. The stench of rotting grain was too strong and they barely had place to sleep leave alone the swamps of mosquitoes.
 

The rich in the village had access to the JCB machines as Dalits waited to hire tractors to dump away the rotten grain, beddings and other soiled material from their quarters. The Government did not pay them the rents of these hired tractors

At the centre of the village under a tree lay a heap of used garments, dumped by the relief workers as there were no takers. Some families of the Majirana community sat in the midst of some open land around the mud homes with bamboo roofs which had tumbled on the ground. People in the village had never ever in the history of their life met with such tragedy. They said they were battered by the main Narmada Canal. At a distance, the canal was visible, as a large portion of the canal unable to withstand the pressure had given away quickly raising the water levels in the village. As per people, the ganda baval trees have deep roots which have penetrated the base of the canal, weakening it.

Dalits were happy that they were able to bargain from the village panchayat and thus had got a pucca cement-brick wall was constructed around some of their dwellings. The wall constructed barely six months ago is no more as it did not have deep enough foundations required and mandated by law. All that had collapsed in the vicinity were the new government scheme constructions, as the many year old structures stood firmly on the ground.

Next, we visited village Khariya, the village which has found more than 22 dead bodies from beneath the sand. The road is washed away at the end of the village as several villages could be seen at a far distance, submerged in the flood waters and were accessible only by the boat. The police and the volunteers were guarding the queue of people, whose homes were on the other side and were awaiting their turn to the two boats that were ferrying people. No one has idea here about the human deaths. Most people live here scattered in their farms. Worse, the migrant labourers from other areas lived in these farms and no one has the actual number of these laborers.

Part of the population is at a safer distance from river Banas. Although their homes were flooded, now they were clean and had no sludge as we saw in the previous village. But all the relief teams have focused relief distribution here. We saw large stack of mattresses which were locked away in a room awaiting distribution. Relief teams had their flags on vehicles and the Khastriya-Thakor Sena and RSS were more visible. It was common sight that the local people were rejecting the relief material, as they did not require them anymore. The caste distinctions and prejudices are intact and have refused to be washed away with flood waters or be submerged under the sludge. Local people do ask for the ‘caste’ of the visitors and often the relief workers, too.

The damage has been to the homes of people. They have lost grain stored for their annual requirement. They have lost their savings as most people do not deposit them in the bank. Worst, those who have farm lands have lost the top soil. The farm boundaries have disappeared. My colleagues, who were with me Narendabhai, Mohanbhai, Kalpeshbhai, said, “For some there is blessing in disguise. If one class of people have smile on their faces, they are the sand mafia. The Banas has brought along with its flood water multi-million tons of sand which finds its way even to Ahmedabad construction sites.”

As the politicians are busy blaming each other, it is the army and the civil society that has performed, saving the lives of people and providing them the relief. Except for the police, there is little presence of the government in the area. The quick survey for the purpose of paying cash doles has been completed by the primary school teachers. Poor people’s helplessness is visibly disturbing.
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*Founder, Navsarjan Trust, Ahmedabad. Pix: Tathya Macwan

This article was first published on counterview.org
 

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Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times

But that this respite could turn into a nightmare for most parts of the state was not imagined.

First the floods played havoc in Morbi of Rajkot district. Then it was Surendranagar district that was hit.

After that, it was South Gujarat. There was a heavy rain fall causing flash  floods  with loss of lives, cattle and inundation of land and washing away of  seeds.

Roads in cities like Ahmedabad have been damaged. There were potholes. Many trees mere uprooted. In Gujarat , a total 10 districts are todayflood affected . These are Banaskantha , Mehsana , Patan, Morabi , Sabarkantha , Ahmedabad  , Anand , Aravalli , Mahisagar  & Surendranagar . Gujarat has 25 districts.

But it was the incessant rains in North Gujarat that deluged the  North Gujarat  beyond imagination. The incessant rain in the adjoining  districts of Rajasthan  caused flood and the flood water entered North Gujarat overflowing the dams and damaging the roads.  

In the meanwhile, the Jetpura dam of Rajasthan has been completely washed away on the midnight of  July 24, midnight, which deluged  Dhanera, causing massive destruction.

People and cattle were swept away. As I write, dead bodies of human beings and cattle are being dug  out of the mud. As the water recedes, even more dead bodies will be visible.

At the last count,  about 300 people have died and more than 10000 cattles are also lost. Crops have been damaged. There is heavy soil erosion. Grain amounting to close to a thousand tonnes have been  damaged and lie rotting, setting off a stink. As many as 1464 bus routes and 12 trains have been cancelled .

Most significantly, in addition to this destruction, there are today 12 breaches in the Narmada Canal. The breaches are 2 kms wide and have inundated the villages. These breaches caused more death and misery: people died in their sleep in the dead of night and many died due to the lack of alert signal or warning.

Officialdom and the government’s machinery is brushing off the magnitude of the 2017 flood , calling it a repeat of the floods of 2015. No lessons have been learnt by government, however.

Long pending work of repairs have not been taken up. The state government’s own GR (resolution) for relief and rehab brought out in 2015 have not been followed.

In 2015, Government of Gujarat has issued a G.R. for Flood relief ( it includes Cashdole , Compensation for the death of Humanbeing & Animals & other loss)

There has been no uniformity or consistency of Relief Disbursement in all flood affected districts.
 

The Mystery & Silence Behind the Collage of the Jetpura Dam in Rajsthan

 All roads today lead to Dahnera which is the worst affected area after  the flood water from the broken dam at Jetpura entered Dhanera and nearby places after midnight. Reliable sources say there was no warning about the breaking of the dam Jetpura.

The collapse of the Jetpura dam is steeped in mystery.  First of all the break of the Jetpura dam has been underplayed and hardly mentioned or explained.

When the Gujarat Minister, Shankar Chaudhury was asked by the ETV journalist,he evaded the question. It appears he had something to hide about the breaking of the dam. Since, the breaking of the dam has been appearing in done reports in the media, but without analysis or investigation.

Why is the Gujarat Govt. hiding the very fact of the breaking of the dam and the flood waters entering Gujarat from Rajasthan?

It is very clear that eithrr there has been a lack of co- ordination between both the states or the governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat have been caught napping.

It is generally believed that calamities are calamities and the state administration is helpless to face the fury of nature. So, no blame can fall at the door of either the government or the administration. It is natural that when natural calamities occur, full cooperation to relief and rehabilitation is always extended. But from the floods in Gujarat in 2017 it is crystal clear that the damage could have been minimised if proper precautionary measures had been taken. The question that remains is, have  precautionary measures been taken by the state governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Central government? And, if not, why not?

Visits of powerful functionaries to the areas affected by natural disasters is routine, deployment of armed forces for rescue operations gives succour. Relief packages are disbursed but neither the outbreak of calamities nor the disbursal of relief have ever really been subject to a public social audit. With the absence of a watchdog, it is the ruling party and their lieutenants who control the disbursement of relief. To date, the  2015 flood relief work has not been executed and the state government has faced no harsh or searching questions on this failure.
 

A walkover for the ruling party

Ironically  the six Congress MLAs  elected  from Banaskantha district. are in a hide out in Bangalore.

In this hour of natural disaster their elected representative are far away.  The sufferers are left helpless and compelled to crawl before the leaders of the ruling party for pittance.

Is there any connection between the breaking of the Jetpura in Rajasthan in dead night and deluging the Dhanera and it’s adjacent areas? Or else why is the fact of the breaking of the Jetpura dam been kept mysteriously secret?

The Gujarat  election is going to be held shortly and Loksabha election will be held in0  2019. Now all the preparations are going on by the ruling BJP  viewing the election.

As isusual RSS has taken over all the places of calamities and are engaged at points for public donations. With the absence of any other force,it has become easy for the RSS to project themselves as  the only savior of the affected people of the  natural calamities. Since 1995 , BJP -ruled state government has been giving a free hand to thr RSS to monopolise relief activities in the  State .

There are reports that any donations by citizens has been seized by the government officials and stickers of the BJP are stamped on the relief materials. This is a ‘most normal practice’in Gujarat.

As said earlier there are flood everywhere but the whole attention is on Banaskantha. So the relief disbursement  to the other regions like Saurashtra, Central Gujarat, and South Gujarat will be neglected.

The crucial questions, issues behind the Gujarat flood of 2017 are being briged aise. With no public commision of inquiry being appointed, they will remains unanswered. Meanwhile an aggressive and unscrupulous ruling dispensation, greedy for power and control –unchallenged by a de images opposition–seeks to convert the floods and the destruction into one more electoral strategy in the poll bound state.

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