GUWAHATI, March 26 � The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department�s Retired Engineers� Forum today called for keeping in place a system to assess the past, present and future loss of public and private property and man days due to the rain-induced flash floods in Guwahati.
Addressing media persons here, the Forum�s general secretary Satyabrata Sarma also called for steps to install some more rain gauges in different locations and to get a survey map prepared by the Survey of India covering the city and its peripheral areas in Meghalaya.
Sarma underlined the need to collect information on the waters coming from all the major contributory channels falling into the Bharalu to know their quantity, velocity, etc.
Alleging that the flash flood situation in Guwahati is turning from bad to worse, Sarma said there is no scientific approach on the part of the government to solve the problem. The government is totally indifferent to this problem and does not have any information on the loss of public and private property and man days caused by the floods.
Moreover, there is lack of interest also in the area of execution of the schemes. The construction of the Noonmati Basin Drainage Scheme, 2009, could not be undertaken due to the lack of diligence on the part of the State Government to secure consent from the Railways, he claimed, adding, the Forum had collected all these information through RTI applications.
If there is a shower in the city for 30 minutes at a stretch, with 50 mm of intensity, then the Bharalu would receive stormwater from the Noonmati Basin at the rate of four lakh litres per second at the Jonali point. This volume of water would require two hours and 10 minutes to reach the Santipur Bharalu Sluice Gate.
But with the discharge capacity of the Bharalu being 70,000 litres per second, considering the width of the river channel at 18 metres and depth at three metres, the river would fail to accommodate even 2,700 lakh litres of water. This is the main reason behind the occurrence of flash floods in the city.
Again, waters coming from the other channels result in the arrival of seven lakh litres of stormwater per second at the Santipur Sluice Gate. The State Water Resources Department (WRD) has no convincing answer as to how it is planning to evacuate the four lakh litres of water per second at the Jonali point, said Sarma.
Moreover, he alleged that the WRD has no idea about the size and shape of the Bharalu. As per its reply to the RTI queries, the river is uniform in its shape between Jonali and Bharalumukh. In that case, excavation of the bed of this river is nothing but waste of public money. He also questioned as to why the State Government has not taken any action against the consultancy firm Tahal for its alleged failure to prepare the 2006 Drainage DPR in a flawless manner.
Addressing the media persons, consultant engineer JN Khataniyar called for a multi-layer elevated piped drainage system above the existing guard walls of the Bharalu to carry the stormwater pumped from the low-lying areas to release it in the Brahmaputra.
Advisor of the Forum RR Choudhury suggested preparation of a drainage master plan for the city.
KG Deb Krori, a member of the core group constituted by the State Government to study the Guwahati drainage problem, underlined the need of a topographical study to know the staying periods of the stormwater in the low-lying areas. He also asked for engaging a firm to monitor the amount of silt loads carried by the stormwaters in different parts of the city.
Besides, he called for steps to erect a ring bund along the Assam-Meghalaya border areas in the city with the provisions of silt traps on the channels coming from the neighbouring State. Madhab Chandra Das, former Commissioner and Secretary of the PHE Department, also spoke on the occasion.