Monsoon Woes: Kishanganj remains neglected

By Md. Mudassir Alam,

Kishanganj – fondly called the Heaven of Bihar has undoubtedly got the nature’s worthless bounties including a beautiful landscape, lush greenery, soothing climate and numerous water bodies. However, the rivers in the district wreck havoc among common people with the onset of monsoon. Every year, the district witness heavy rainfall that results into flood affecting thousands of people and destroy crop and houses as well.

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Fact is that, the Monsoon woes for the district of Kishanganj is not at all new or recently developed issue. This problem is faced by the locals since independence and the situation is becoming worse with every passing year. Reason, all the blocks of Kishanganj are criss-crossed by rivers including one of India’s biggest river Mahananda River that flows through the blocks of Kishanganj, Thakurganj and Kochadhaman. Other major rivers flowing through the district are Kankai (Bahadurganj, Terrhagachh, Kochadhaman & Dighalbank), Mechi (Thakurganj), Ram Chandra & Ratwa (Terrhagachh) and Kaul (Kochadhaman).

The rainy season starts in the district of Kishanganj from April and ends by October. So, the rainy season altogether remains in the district for six months that causes flood. And the neighbouring country of Nepal releases water in the connecting rivers many times during rainy season. Of course, we don’t have technology to curtail the amount of rain received by Kishanganj. But at the same time, we can control the damage caused by the floods that happen due to incessant rain almost every year.

Rain is the prime reason behind the floods, but apart from this the human negligence is also a major reason. And most importantly, the local leaders especially MPs and MLAs haven’t given attention to this issue. The former MPs like Taslimuddin, M J Akbar and Syed Shahbuddin, or prominent MLAs didn’t plan anything crude to sort out the heavy flood issue in Kishanganj. Even the state or Central governments didn’t have any type of talk with Nepal on water releasing issue.

In May 2009 Lok Sabha election, the people of Kishanganj elected a pro-development Maulana Asrarul Haque Qasmi as MP. A fair portion of Kishanganj population even declared the independence of district with the victory of Maulana Asrarul Haque. The victorious leader was enthralled over his success, and didn’t shy away from making promises that also included a special project called ‘Mahananda River Basin Project’ to connect the rivers of the district together. In the year 2010, he told a local newspaper of Kishanganj that the Centre has released fund for the Mahananda River Basin Project. But no major development has since been seen on the project.

Having said that, it is also true that local MPs or MLAs alone cannot save the district from the devastation because the issue is far beyond their ambit as it captures inter-state as well as international angle. Here becomes more important the role of the state government and Union government.

However, in July 2010 itself, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched the Mahananda River Basin Project as he laid foundation stone for the fortification of left as well as right embankments of Mahananda River at Pranpur in Katihar district at a cost of over Rs 149 crore. He also admitted that the district, which was criss-crossed by many rivers and rivulets, was devastated by floods almost every year. He further said that Mahananda River Basin Project was always uppermost in his mind. He hoped it could adequately address the flood-related problems of the area.

In July three years ago (in 2008) the Bihar Government had informed National Water Development Agency (NWDA) that they have commenced the work of preparation of Detaild Project Report of Intra-State links of the river basins of the state on priority. The state government had requested NWDA to prepare DPRs of six intra-state link proposals including transfer of Kosi basin water to Mahananda basin through Kosi-Mechi link canal.

NWDA completed DPR of Kosi – Mechi interlinking project in 2008-09 and sent to the state Govt. in June 2009.

There are 13 river basins in Bihar. Of them, according to the official data of Water Resource Development Department of Bihar Government, Mahananda with catchment area of 6150 Sq.Km has 5150 Sq.Km flood prone area as only 1210 Sq.Km. is protected area.

Basin Wise flood prone and protected areas

Source: http://wrd.bih.nic.in/

–With inputs from TCN News Desk in Patna

(The author is Kishanganj native but works in Delhi as a freelance journalist)