The floods this year are the worst in recent years.
It is festival season in Bihar, with Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath, all in the same month. But the joy is missing for 15 lakh people stranded, marooned or displaced in massive floods in the state. Thousands of residents are facing a scarcity of relief materials, and many are still stranded on rooftops, waiting to be rescued, hoping those structures are not washed away by the strong currents of river Kosi.
For the flood-affected in Bihar, the festival season will be spent mostly huddled under tarpaulins or any plastic cover on state and national highways, living on air-dropped food packets, and exposed to water-borne diseases.
While floods are common during the monsoon, the accompanying misery is more man-made than nature's fury.
Every year, hundreds of crores are released for flood relief and prevention both by the Centre and the state. But there is no lasting solution to the annual disaster.
According to a statement by the Bihar Disaster Management Department (DMD) on October 2, 429 villages in 17 districts have been affected by floods. These districts include East Champaran, West Champaran, Araria, Kishanganj, Gopalganj, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Supaul, Madhepura, Muzaffarpur, Purnea, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Saran, Saharsa, Katihar and Khagaria.
According to officials of the water resources department, several districts were devastated by floods after record volumes of water were released from the Kosi and Gandak barrages, following heavy rainfall in Nepal and north Bihar. However, successive embankment breaches on October 1 have exacerbated the crisis.
Cause of floods
The floods this year are the worst in recent years because the Birpur barrage, built on the Kosi in Nepal, released 6.6 lakh cusec of water, the highest in almost 60 years. On the Indian side, embankment breaches have been reported from seven places in four districts.
Rivers are the lifeline for civilisations, but the river Kosi has become the 'sorrow of Bihar', causing widespread human suffering due to flooding and recurrent changes in its course when it flows from the Himalayas to Tibet, Nepal and Bihar. Experts say in the last 250 years, the Kosi has shifted its course over 120 km from east to west, and its unstable nature is attributed to the heavy silt it carries during the monsoon season.
Kosi and along with other rivers - Gandak, Burhi Gandak, Bagmati, Kamla Balan, Mahananda, Adhwara - are full of sediments. So, when it rains and the volume of water increases, the rivers quickly overflow their banks.
"Much of the Himalayas is just a massive lump of loose soil that will take a long time to mature into rocks. When the rains lash them, erosion sets in quite easily and the loose soil is washed onto the plains, most of which constitutes the Indian sub-continent. Flooding in Bihar will continue till such time this geological process occurs in the distant future," says Dinesh Mishra, an engineer-turned-flood expert who has studied the rivers of Bihar for decades.
Taming the river
Engineers had tried to restrain the river by constructing embankments in the 1950s but they ended up with new challenges. Embankments have breached several times since then and have narrowed the course of the river.
"It is neither desirable nor possible to do away with floods in the given situation. The skills of the engineers and resources of the government have led to a situation that demands serious reconsideration on our approach to deal with the floods," says Mr Mishra.
"Embankment projected as the main tool to tame the rivers have not given desired results. They prevent the passage of rainwater into the rivers resulting in water logging in the countryside," he adds.
Every year, hundreds of lives are lost - some reported, many unreported - and health problems have multiplied with women and children suffering the worst of it. The economic costs are still steeper with huge infrastructural losses in terms of roads, homes and buildings; damaged standing crops and vegetables, loss of livestock, unemployment and lack of development leading to further impoverishment. The river has eroded vast stretches of once fertile land, dumping sand over it with added pace. The state government spends about Rs 1,000 crore annually for flood management and relief. Bihar has the highest rate of migration to other states in India and many leave the poverty-stricken Kosi region for jobs and better lives.
"In most cases of flooding, the tools of survival are lost. Victims' cattle, which they treat as part of family, make the worst case. Nobody wants to see their cattle dying. Such is the that they let the cattle loose if they can't feed them anymore. The loss of houses/huts, stored food items, clothing, drinking water, food for the children disappears in one go," says Mr Mishra.
The idea of building a high dam on Kosi in Nepal was proposed decades ago, but it was abandoned due to international issues, including Nepal's reluctance. Calls for a high dam on the river Kosi have gained momentum yet again in Nepal this year.
Recently, the Centre approved Rs 11,000 crore as financial aid to Bihar to build barrages to contain the flood devastation from rivers originating from Nepal.
In the meantime, the Flood Atlas of Bihar (prepared by space agency ISRO) suggests a shift in mitigation measures. The experience with embankments suggests that engineering solutions alone may not be enough to solve the flood problem.
Instead of depending on structural measures like embankments, the report suggests concentrating on minimising flood risks and damage, keeping in mind an ever-changing river like the Kosi. But any long-lasting solution will need political will.