Environment and Sustainable

development: Improving

Systems Performance

Floods in Kosi

• Failure of

– Programme

– Policy

– Implementation of program

– Monitoring

Flood 2008 - Impact

• The flood killed close to 1000 people and forced

nearly 30 lakh people from their homes in Bihar. No

cattle dead, main economic soruce of livelihood, not

known.

• Widespread disease and fear of epidemic

• More than 300,000 houses were destroyed and at

least 340,000 hectares (840,000 acres) of crops were

damaged.

• Crops worth over Rs.1.5 billion damaged and

destroyed.

2008 Floods – Response• National Disaster Declared

• Government announced USD 230 million

• Announced construction of hazard safe houses for 100,000

families.

• World Bank Supported the above program with USD 220 million

commitment.

• Chief minister asked for 145 billion rehabilitation package.

• Instituted inquiry commission under Justice Walia

• OUTCOME:

• Out of a total 100,000 houses to be constructed by the

Government in the Kosi region comprising Madhepura, Saharsa

and Supaul districts, only 12,500 were erected till February 2014.

• Justice Walia commission report tabled in 2014 (after FIVE

YEARS) identified administrative failure and holds government

responsible.

Who’s at fault?

• KOSI for being the way it is – Bihar’s Sorrow

• Government – national, state, local, etc.

• Zero accountability – authoriies responsible for it go

left untouched.

• Lack of preparedness

• Lack of communication to the downstream

population at the time of the embankment breach

• Corruption – poor quality material used in

construction of barrages/dams and poor upkeep.

• Zero value of human life..that sustains CHALTA HAI

ATTITUDE – Almost always last minute response.

• Who else………God??

Nature’s Fury or Man made

Disaster?• Kosi is named as Sorrow of Bihar!!

• Since 1963, Kosi has breached 7 times and 2008 at

kusaha was its 8th and most impactful.

• All the earlier breaches had occurred downstream of the

barrage. But this year the breach happened upstream of

the barrage and the flow was less than what normally is

during floods.

• The Kosi has an annual silt load of 94,400 acre feet. The

embankment, which was build to hold 0.95 million cusecs

of water, gave way when water was less than 0.14 million

cusecs

• The day the breach occurred, the water in the Kosi was

0.134 million cusecs at the breach point, while usually the

river has 0.4 million cusecs during floods

Let’s meet KOSI

Some Info about KOSI

• Kosi flows between the boundary of Nepal and India. It

origninates in Nepal

• It is the largest tributaries of Ganga. The river along with its eight

tributaries drains an area of 69,300 sq km before it meets ganga.

• The Kosi river has an exceptionally high sediment yield of 0.43

milliontines/year/km2 which is accommodated in a very narrow

alluvial plains, almost one-fifth of the upland area.

• It shows evidence of lateral channel shifting exceeding 120 km

(75 mi) during the past 250 years, via at least twelve major

channels. The river, which flowed near Purnea in the 18th

century, now flows west of Saharsa.

• River gradient ranges from more than 10 meters/km for major

upper tributaries in the mountains to as little as 6 cm/km as the

lower Kosi nears the Ganga.

Info Cond….

• The Kosi alluvial fan is one of the

largest in the world, covering

some 15,000 km² and extending

180 km from the outermost

foothills of the Himalayas to the

Ganga river valley.

• Flood waters naturally spread out

over the surface of this cone.

Flows over 25,000 m³/s have been

measured where the Kosi exits the

Himalayan foothills, enough to

create a flow of water 30 km wide.

At this rate, in one week enough

water would accumulate to cover

the entire megafan to a depth of

1.5 meters.

why it happened?

• Embankments are the culprits. What we think is a solution has

turned to be the problem.

• The use of embankments to contain the Kosi has prevented it

from spreading its silt load of 92.5 million cubic metres.

• It has resulted in raising the river bed by four metres and

prevented adjoining channels from draining into the river and

caused permanent waterlogging in an 8360 sq km area.

• As a result, one million people in 380 villages face flood fury

every year and eight million are waterlogged.

• Embankments in fact have increased the area prone to

flooding from 2.5 million hectares in the 1950s to 6.8 million

hectares

Possible Alternates• Building additional dams in Nepal

• Increase the capacity of existing

Dams?

• Build more embankments

downstream

• Building diversion channels

downstream to divert extra water?

• Extensive soil erosion and

landslides in its upper catchment

have produced a silt yield of about

19 m³/ha/year (10 cu yd/acre/yr),

one of the highest in the world.

• In 1962, when Bihar had 160

kilometres of embankments the

flood-prone area was 2.5 million

ha. In 2002, it had 3,340 km

embankments and 6.9 million ha

of flood-prone area.

• Embanking the Kosi has led to a

rise of 2 m in its bed in the lower

reaches within 30 years of

embankment construction.

• Building a dam in Nepal is not a

solution because constructing it

will take 20 years and the huge silt

load will leave it choked in no

time.

Alternates Contd…

• After the Floods, work begun to repair the breach and bring the river

back to its "old" route, within the embankment. But can it be done? What

is the larger picture here?

• Kosi has been changing course since 1736 and has moved westward by

120 km. Additionally, due to higher silt and sediment load, the river will

continue to change its course.

Possible Alternates

• Since, Kosi has decisively changed

course there is a good opportunity to

apply ecologically sound practices such

as allowing the river to flow freely.

• What does this entail?

Benefits of the new approach

• Let the river flow in the new direction depositing silt on its course

• Understanding the river behavior ( which is flowing for almost

200,000 years) and to apply this knowledge in the context of

human settlements.

• With the embankments gone, the Kosi can connect once again

with natural drainage channels.

• Silt through distribution will enrich the soil. The river can thus

become the driver of a water-based economy in which surpluses

are put to use to intensive agriculture.

• Not long time ago, this is how the life was in North Bihar. Water

culture of North Bihar knew how to live with its floods. It did not

try to hold its rivers, rather wove around them a life of boats and

fisheries and suitable crops.

• Water based economy will trigger innovative and appropriate

solutions for local needs.

Benefits of the new approach

• Engineering solutions to tame rivers have deprived north Bihar of

the most fertile lands in the world, turning it from the cradle of

civilization to one of the poorest regions of India

Way forward for Auditors

• Will building additional dams and barrages will do any

good?

• Major incremental costs and longer timelines for

building new dams

• Permanently altering topography putting a large

landmass under risk of flooding

• C/B Analysis

Yamuna in Delhi

• Failure of

– Programme

– Policy

– Implementation of program

– Monitoring

Some Info

• Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387

metres on the south western slopes of Banderpooch peaks in the

uppermost region of the Lower Himalayas in Uttarakhand, it

travels a total length of 1,376 kilometers (855 mi) and has a

drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi),

40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin, before merging with the

Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad

• Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna waters. With an

annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres (cbm) and usage

of 4,400 cbm (of which irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the

river accounts for more than 70 per cent of Delhi’s water

supplies.

• A stretch of around 22 km in Delhi contributes 70 per cent of the total

pollution load of the river.

Some Info

• The government has so far spent over Rs. 5,500 crore on

cleaning the river as part of Yamuna Action Plan. Many sewage

treatment plants have been set up including 17 in Delhi. But

these plants can only treat less than half the total waste pumped

in each day.

• As per the Delhi Jal Board, which is responsible for managing

the city’s sewage, 680 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage

is produced, while its treatment capacity is 594.72 MGD.

However, DJB is able to utilize only 60% of the capacity, letting

millions of Gallons flow untreated sewage in Yamuna through 19

canals.

• Delhi Fresh Water Supply - Raw water is being made available

to Delhi from Ganga River (240 MGD), Yamuna River (310

MGD), Bhakhra Beas Management Board (140 MGD). About 115

MGD of ground water is being explored through Ranney Wells

and Tube Wells of Delhi Jal Board.

Some Info

• Delhi requires close to 4200 Million Liters (ML) every day, while it

gets supplied only 3200 ML from all the sources. Delhi loses

more than 40 percent of the its water due to leakages from its

network of water supply pipelines. Thus, the city effectively ends

up with just 1900 ML of water every day for a population of more

than 160 lakhs, providing just 120 liters of water on an average

for a person.

Future Plan

• The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) 2031 sewerage master

plan envisages Rs. 25,000 crore to be spent to

upgrade the sewerage network

• New reservoirs planned are: Renuka Dam on River

Giri, a tributary of Yamuna in Sirmaur District of

Himachal Pradesh, Kishau Dam on river Tons, also a

tributary of Yamuna river in Uttrakhand and Lakhwar-

Vyasi Dam on river Yamuna near Lakhwar village in

District Dehradun of Uttrakhand

• 2 More dams planned in Kumaon region of

Uttarakhand

Sustainable Alternates• Immediate and necessary step: Fixing the leaky supply lines

could augment the supply by almost 40%. Acc. to estimates this

could be done in less 600 crore. This water amount is equivalent

to amount Renuka Dam will supply at its peak capacity. The cost

of building Renuka Dam is estiamated close to 3000 crore.

Innovative Alternates:

• the potential of the Yamuna floodplains in the National Capital

Territory of Delhi and show that there can be an annual yield of

600-900 MCM of water, which is three-fourths the total water

supply to Delhi. This makes it an invaluable natural resource

potentially worth about Rs 6000-9000 crores a year of non-

invasive use.

• It can’t happen unless Yamuna Flood Plain is not freed from

encroachment and commercial- residential development. Many

of the colonies – Mayurvihar, Patparganj, etc. have come up on

the flood plain. The NGT has alread issued order to stop further

encroachment.

Sustainable Alternates

• Delhi alone has 900 such water bodies; together they

can store approx. 15-20 billion litres of rainwater. But

most of these water bodies are dry, silted and/or filled.

According to national capital region planning board,

Delhi can capture 364 billion liters of Rainwater

Runoff .

Susatinable Alternates

• What is the cost involved in such option?

• C/B analysis between conventional

approach vis-a vis new options?

What's common among these

disasters

• Design of policy

• Design of Programme

• Implementation

• Monitoring issues