IS FLOOD HAVOC IN AP MAN MADE?

Millions of people suffered misery due to the flood havoc in Andhra Pradesh. Tens of thousands of houses were destroyed, thousands of animal died, hundreds of thousands of crops were washed off. The victims of floods have to rebuild from the scratch. The total damage is estimated at more than $20 billion dollars. Residents of Kurnool were the most unfortunate among the lot who are suffering from the severest consequences from the flood havoc. Millions of people became silent victims to the tragedy.

The flood havoc has been attributed to the excessive rain fall in the catchment areas, which led to release of excessive waters from the reservoirs particularly the Srisailam reservoir. At the peak the inflow at the dam was a staggering 2.5 million cusecs, while the discharge was about 1.5 million cusecs. It is lucky that this dam withstood such massive inflows is a silver lining in darkness.

However in the post disaster scenario questions are being raised as to whether this flood havoc is nature’s fury or man made. The supporters of the theory that man made elements played major role in the flood havoc makes us to have a thorough relook into the reasons for the flood havoc.

The first accusation being made is that at the bidding of political masters, the reservoir authorities at Srisailam Reservoir kept the water level at 885 feet to favor the interests of Kadapa district by intentionally withholding the release of water to the Nagarguna Sagar Dam which has a cushion of about 150 tmc despite info that massive rains and inflows into the Srisailam dam and catchment areas were forecast. At that time, farmers serviced by the Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir were facing acute drought conditions with withering crops. It is being said that the water releases from the dams are not being made by technical experts but by political masters is a serious cause of worry. It is unfortunate that those who want to be benefitted from the excessive storages at Srisailam too were victims of inundation.

The second accusation being made is that relief and rescue operations were tardy and government inaction increased the sufferings of the victims. The mud filled homes make the life of the survivors horrible with the threat of epidemics looming large.

On both the accounts it is the failure of machinery clearly. Steps needed to be taken to prevent

recurrence of such human errors and act in such way that future disaster management matches the best in the world.

Political Masters must be taken out of influence in the matter of management of water and it should be left to Experts with clear instructions to distribute water equitably and take steps to avoid human tragedy like the one the Andhra people went through.