GUWAHATI, Sept 26 � The Dhemaji Ban Samasya Sthayi Samadhan Dabi Mancha has demanded catchment management plan involving Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Government to tame the furious Dhemaji district rivers. The mancha has also called for a strong monitoring mechanism to ensure flawless catchment management.
The mancha has further demanded a research centre to study the origin and courses of the district�s violent rivers, besides measures to provide rail and road bridges built over these rivers with adequate length so that the flows of the rivers are not hampered during the flood season.
Addressing a press conference here today, technical advisor to the mancha, Tarun Chandra Bargohain also said that no new embankment should be built along these rivers to avoid any deterioration of the flood situation.
Bargohain, a former Executive Director of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), who has spent four decades studying the rivers flowing from Arunachal Pradesh, maintained that necessity of the existing embankments should be reviewed and maintained only in those areas where they are unavoidable.
He also laid stress on maintaining appropriate levels alternatively on both the banks of the river channels with proper gradience and dimensions. Channelisation and restoration of old river courses and their training with revetments would be helpful in controlling flood, he added.
The downstream impacts of the development schemes should be considered and addressed to and the existing norms and guidelines be amended, he suggested. He further said that the inter-basin transfer of river water should be avoided.
Considering the prevailing condition, he suggested that the rivers of the district should be provided with surge lakes, rapids and plunge pools at their mouths inside Assam territory with required depth and width and these lakes and the pools should be provided with embankments built with the excavated soil. The gradience of the rivers should be sufficient to maintain the self-cleansing velocity. The size and grades of the river channels at different stages should be sufficient to cater to the probable maximum flood, Bargohain said.
The mancha demanded that planning and implementing authorities should consult local authorities and people before taking up any new schemes that concern the rivers, mancha general secretary Muhi Bargohain said.
