India floods: a man-made disaster

When the rains came in Uttarakhand, it was runaway building projects, dams and official failures that made them catastrophic
Praful Bidwai guardian.co.uk 28 Jun 13;

The terrible floods in India's tiny north Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, which killed more than 1,000 people, left 70,000 stranded for days and destroyed livelihoods, have been officially termed a natural calamity caused by cloudbursts and unprecedented heavy monsoon rainfall.

However, the true causes of the epic tragedy lie in the grievous damage recently wrought on the region's ecology by the runaway growth of tourism, unchecked proliferation of roads, hotels, shops and multistory housing in ecologically fragile areas, and above all mushrooming hydroelectricity dams that disrupt water balances. Underlying the disaster are multiple governance failures, too.

These man-made factors turned an extreme weather event into a social catastrophe. True, the region experienced heavy rainfall of 340-370mm within 24 hours on June 16-17, leading to flash floods. But such precipitation isn't unprecedented. Uttarakhand has recorded single-day rainfall in excess of 400mm several times, including 450mm in 1995 and 900mm in 1965. Cloudbursts, floods and rapid swelling of fast-flowing rivers aren't uncommon.

But this time the floodwaters, laden with tens of thousands of tonnes of silt, boulders and debris from dam construction, found no outlet. The routes they took in the past, including ravines and streams, were blocked with sand and rocks. The waters inundated scores of towns and villages, submerging some buildings under several feet of mud, smothering life.

Aggravating the devastation were two downpours of water and rocks from the higher mountain ranges, in all probability caused by glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which deluged the Kedarnath temple, a major Hindu pilgrimage centre. GLOFs, or the explosive bursting of glacier lakes, are thought to be a consequence of human-induced climate change, which is causing rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, themselves warming at twice the global rate.

Such a massive loss of life could have been greatly reduced if an early warning system, effective evacuation plans and a responsive disaster management system were in place. They weren't. In fact, as the comptroller and auditor general pointed out in April, the Uttarakhand Disaster Management Authority, formed in October 2007, has never met or formulated "rules, regulations, polices or guidelines". Modestly priced radar-based technology to forecast cloudbursts would have saved lives. But it wasn't installed. Nor were emergency evacuation plans drawn up.

There was local-level governance failure, too. Haphazard, unregulated construction of roads and bridges was allowed on crumbling, landslide-prone ridges and steep slopes, ignoring the region's fragile geology and high earthquake vulnerability. Forests were destroyed on a large scale. Hundreds of buildings were constructed in the flood plains of rivers, their "natural" terrain, which should be no-go areas. Riverbeds were recklessly mined for sand. As construction debris accumulated, land contours and flows of streams and rivers changed.

Indiscriminate building of hydroelectric dams was the worst culprit. These involve drilling huge tunnels in the hills by blasting rocks, placing enormous turbines in the tunnels, destroying soil-binding vegetation to build water channels and other infrastructure, laying transmission lines and carelessly dumping excavated muck. Many dams have been built on the same river so close to one another that they leave no scope for its regeneration.

Dams steal water from local people. They alter the hydrological cycle and natural course of rivers. Uttarakhand's 70 completed large dams have diverted more than 640km, equivalent to half the length of its major rivers. They have profoundly destabilised its ecology. Yet another 680 dams are reportedly in various stages of commissioning, construction or planning, mainly by private companies, which would be largely unaccountable.

A 2009 CAG report complained that the government was "pursuing hydro-power projects indiscriminately", ignoring the damaging "cumulative effect" of multiple run-of-the river dams. Technically, India's environment ministry follows an environmental impact assessment process, but that's badly compromised by the Indian elite's insatiable appetite for electricity and promoters' pressure.

When I was on the expert appraisal committee (EAC) on river valley projects in the 1990s, none of the dozens of projects we examined had adequate documentation on the impact on forests, wildlife, hydrology or rehabilitation. All were rejected. The present EAC has approved all 262 projects placed before it over six years, without seriously evaluating their impact or the rivers' carrying capacity. This is a recipe for yet more Uttarakhands.

Indians question how far flash-flooding disaster was manmade
Boom in religious tourism and hydroelectric projects may have contributed to disaster in Uttarakhand
Maseeh Rahman in Delhi guardian.co.uk 28 Jun 13;

As India picks up the pieces from the worst-ever flash floods in the Himalayas, the nation is beginning to wonder how far manmade causes – specifically religious tourism and hydroelectric projects – contributed to the disaster.

So far about 1,000 people have been confirmed dead in Uttarakhand state from last week's flooding, though with an unknown number still missing state authorities have speculated that the actual death toll could be three to five times higher.

The Himalayas are a young mountain range with a fragile geology prone to landslides. After the 17 June deluge destroyed towns, villages, roads and bridges for more than 60 miles (100km) along the banks of the Mandakini and the Alaknanda, two important tributaries of the Ganges river, Indians are asking whether the disaster was inevitable, or whether human intervention made things much worse.

The origin of the disaster is beyond dispute. A glacier ruptured under the pressure of water from a severe cloudburst, raining tonnes of ice, water and rock on the Hindu pilgrimage town of Kedarnath, on the left bank of the Mandakini.

Uttarakhand has experienced flash floods in the past. The latest calamity though occurred at the peak of the pilgrim season, dramatically increasing the number of casualties.

But it is the boom in religious tourism that has put a severe strain on the state's shaky infrastructure. The region is blessed with some of Hinduism's most sacred pilgrim destinations. Domestic tourist traffic has shot up by 300% in just a decade to more than 30 million a year. This number is expected to double by 2017.

"There's a spurt in religiosity across India," said the sociologist Arshad Alam. "After two decades of rapid economic growth, the middle class has expanded, and has more money to spend. So pilgrimages have become very popular."

As a result, hundreds of new, multistorey hotels, apartment blocks and religious centres have sprung up in Uttarakhand, often on the flood plains of the capricious Mandakini and Alakananda rivers, in total defiance of building regulations. Several were washed away last week.

"There has to be a check on the mindless, uncontrolled religious tourism in the Himalaya," said Maharaj K Pandit, director of Delhi University's centre for interdisciplinary studies of mountain and hill environment.

But most analysts believe restricting the number of pilgrims would be political suicide. "The desire to worship at Kedarnath is almost like an irresistible force," said Pavan Srinath of the Chennai-based thinktank Takshashila Foundation. "Despite the tragedy, people are already talking about when they will undertake the sacred journey. No government can bar the devout from the Himalayas."

Pandit acknowledges it's a "ticklish issue", but points out that the tourist boom is putting unbearable strain on the Himalayan ecosystem. During the season, for instance, there is bumper-to-bumper traffic spewing diesel smoke on badly constructed mountain roads. "I once counted 117 buses go over a bridge in eight minutes," he said.

In recent years Uttarakhand has also seen a boom in hydroelectric projects. Seventy projects are up or under way in the mountain state, some of nearly 300 planned by Delhi for the entire Himalayas. A few come with dams, but a majority are run-of-the-river projects requiring tunnelling through the mountainside. A recent official audit revealed that in some parts of the upper Ganges basin, there is a hydroelectric project planned for every three to four miles (5-7km) of river.

There are reports of serious damage to some of these projects in last week's deluge, with the debris causing havoc to the neighbouring environment, both natural and manmade. One of the worst-hit was Shrinagar town, located downstream from a newly constructed dam on the banks of the Alaknanda tributary. Much of the low-lying town was buried under thick sludge three metres (10ft) high, destroying even large government buildings and warehouses.

A recent article in Science magazine – "Threats from India's Himalaya dams" – warned against damage to the ecosystem from badly planned, poorly monitored projects. The region is known for its biodiversity, and is famous for its flowers, its butterflies and its Mahseer fish. Science estimated that "habitat degradation from dam building" in the Himalayas could lead to the disappearance of 29 species of flowering plants, and terrestrial and aquatic life.

"Nobody is saying there should be no dams," said Pandit, the article's co-author. "But the emphasis should be on securing the Himalayan landscape after understanding its fragility, not on uncontrolled development."

Not all experts are in agreement. Srinath maintains that the devastation would have been even more widespread if the reservoir of the region's biggest dam at Tehri had not contained a significant volume of the deluge. "Dams can also prevent disasters," he said. "The critical issue is not dams, but proper dam management. In India, we just don't have a culture of public safety."

Pandit is not convinced. "Dams do hold water, but once they reach their maximum capacity they become ticking bombs," he said. Tehri Dam is dangerously full, even though the monsoon has just begun. Next month a million pilgrims are expected in Uttarakhand for the annual "Kanwar Yatra" at Haridwar, downstream from Tehri.

"The Himalaya is an earthquake-prone zone, so God forbid, if a major dam ever bursts the destruction it will cause will be unimaginable," said Pandit.

Hindu revenge?

For the devotees of Dhari Devi, a local avatar of the fierce Hindu goddess Kali, the flash flooding might seem preordained.

Dhari Devi's tiny shrine in Shrinagar was to be submerged by the water systems of a local reservoir the Shrinagar dam's reservoir, and national Hindu leaders had appealed to the prime minister against its relocation. According to local lore, the goddess protected Uttarakhand from calamities, so her shrine could not be touched. But the power company moved the black stone idol on the night of 16 June to save it from the swollen dam reservoir. Within hours, disaster struck.