A tale of two dams: Is Bihar’s

unprecedented flood an
avoidable man-
made disaster?
sandrp.wordpress.com
9 mins read

A
bove: Map Showing the location of Bansagar Dam, Sone River,
Ganga River and Patna
Water level of Ganga at Patna reached 50.43 m on Aug 21, 2016
morning with still showing rising trend. This level was already 16 cm
higher than the highest ever recorded flood level (HFL) of Ganga at
Patna of 50.27 m. By Aug 22, 2016, at three more sites along Ganga,
the water level had already breached the highest recorded levels:
Balia in Uttar Pradesh (Ganga Water level at 60.3 m, higher than the
HFL of 60.25 m recorded on Sept 14, 2003), Hathidah in Bihar (Ganga
water level at 43.17 m, higher than the HFL of 43.15 m recorded on
Aug 7, 1971, that is 45 years back) and Bhagalpur in Bihar (Ganga
water level at 34.55 m, higher than HFL of 34.5 m recorded on Sept 3,
2013). This means that the highest flood level that started at Patna is
now travelling both upstream and downstream along Ganga.

Several districts of Bihar along Ganga are facing floods, with at least
10 lakh people affected and about 2 lakh people displaced. On Aug 21
alone, NDRF teams have rescued over 5300 people from Didarganj,
Bakhtiyarpur, Danapur Chhapra, Vaishali and Maner. At least ten
lakh people have been affected in Bihar, two lakh have been displaced
and scores have been killed. It seems more like and annual natural
calamity.

But that is not the case, if we look closely. Available information

shows that the unprecedented floods that we are now seeing in Ganga
in Bihar and UP are largely due to contribution of two dams:
Bansagar Dam along Sone river in Madhya Pradesh in the upstream
and Farakka Dam (misleadingly called a Barrage) on the Ganga river
in West Bengal. If Bansagar Dam was operated in optimum way, than
it need not have released over ten lakh cusecs of water. As pointed
out by Bihar government, the high floods brought by Ganga in Patna
are majorly due to the high flow contributed by Sone river upstream
of Patna.
Condition of the Farakka Ship Lock. Security Personnel there told us
(Nov 2014) hardly any ships pass this route, less than one ship in
three months Photo: Parineeta Dandekar

Role of Farakka The Farakka is the second dam that has

contributed to the high floods in Bihar, as pointed out by Bihar Chief
Minister Shri Nitish Kumar. In fact, due to opening of some of the
gates of Farakka, as reported by NDTV[i] (NDTV reported that 104
gates were opened on Aug 21 evening, but this is yet to be ascertained
since this could create major disaster in the downstream areas), the
Ganga water level at Gandhi Ghat came down to 50.11 m by Aug 22
evening from the unprecedented level of 50.43 m on Aug 21. Bihar
Chief Minister has said, consistent with what he has been saying over
the last few years, that Farakka barrage has led to drainage
congestion in the upstream, has led to increase in Ganga river bed
level in upstream areas and also has reduced the carrying capacity of
the river. He has been asking for an independent review of the
usefulness of Farakka barrage and demanding decommissioning of
the barrage. He has also rightly asked for National Silt Management
Policy, there is none today. These are very legitimate demands of
Bihar Chief Minister, which he has been raising earlier too, including
recently in front of the Prime Minister, but it seems the central
government is not listening.
Official Sone Basin Map from Bansagar Control Board

Opening of the Farakka gates have created flood disaster in Malda in

West Bengal and further downstream.

Farakka Barrage

Mismanaged Operation of Bansagar Dam Available

information on website of Madhya Pradesh Water Resources
Department[ii] shows that the Bansagar Dam on Sone river in
Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh with Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of
341.64 m has Live Storage Capacity of 5429.6 MCM (Million Cubic
Meters). This is the third highest capacity reservoir of Madhya
Pradesh (after Indira Sagar on Narmada and Gandhi Sagar on
Chambal) and such reservoirs should only be filled up closer to the
end of the monsoon and in case need to be operated in such a way
during the monsoon that when downstream area is getting high
rainfall, or facing floods, the reservoir does not have to release water
to add to the downstream flood disaster. However, by 0800 hours in
the morning of Aug 19, 2016, the water level at the dam was already
341.33 m, which means with storage of 5169.2 MCM, the reservoir
was 95.22% full and had very little capacity to store more water.
However, till the evening (1730 hours) of 1808, the dam was
releasing about 1672 cumecs (cubic meters per second), much lower
than the inflows. It was only at 0700 hours in the morning of Aug 19
that the dam started releasing massive 15798 cumecs of water,
opening 16 of its 18 gates. It is this release of water, added to the
downstream heavy rainfall, that led to Ganga river water reaching
unprecedented levels in Patna and elsewhere in Bihar and UP. If
Bansagar dam had not released water during this period of floods in
the downstream area, by not filling up the dam earlier, the
unprecedented flood levels in Bihar and UP could have been avoided,
and with it the floods that lakhs of people faced.

Map showing locations of Bansagar Dam and other important places

Often when we raise the question about advance water release from
dams to ensure that dams continue to have cushion to avoid creating
downstream flood disaster, we are asked about the risk of loss of
water in case there are no rains subsequently. However, that is not
the case this year when monsoon is already surplus in East Madhya
Pradesh, Bansagar catchment of 18648 sq km upstream of the dam.
This becomes particularly important when it is known that there is
over 50 000 sq km of catchment below the dam. Moreover, there was
also advance warning from IMD of the impending high rainfall in East
MP. Clearly, actionable information was available for advance release
of water from the Bansagar dam, but this was not heeded till 0700
hours on Aug 19, 2016, after which suddenly large quantity of water
was released when downstream areas were already facing high
rainfall and floods. Even as I write this around noon on Aug 23, 2016,
another such release from Bansagar Dam is impending as the water
level at the dam has already reached 340.92 m (close to 90% live
storage capacity by 0800 hours today with all gates closed.
More over, when the Bansagar reservoir filling started on June 25,
2016, the dam already had 1808.58 MCM of water. It may be recalled
that 2015-16 was a drought year and yet, over 33.3% of the live
storage in Bansagar reservoir remained unutilized at the end of the
2015-16 drought year! In fact if this water had been put to use in the
drought year, it would have been doubly beneficial: It would have
created additional space of over 1800 MCM in the reservoir and water
stored this monsoon to that extent would have created that much
lower flood disaster in the downstream area.
Farakka Barrage: Photo by Parineeta Dandekar

Even hydropower generation at the 405 MW installed capacity at the

three stage hydro projects in 2015-16 was 721.84 MU, almost half of
the generation of 1388.5 MU in the previous year (in fact the
generation of 1388.5 MU in 2014-15 itself was about 30% lower than
the generation of about 1931 MU during previous two years) as per
official figures from Central Electricity Authority[iii]. Even during the
first four months (April-July) of current financial year (2016-17),
hydropower generation at Bansagar hydro station was already lower
at 161.13 MU compared to 299.05 MU during the same period
previous year, which itself was lower than the earlier two years! This
is another major loss for economy, but why was this the case?

All this leads to a number of questions:

• WHY WAS THE BANSAGAR DAM ALLOWED TO FILL UP TO

96% LEVEL BY 0700 HOURS ON AUG 19, 2016, WHEN
ACTIVE MONSOON FOR AT LEAST SIX MORE WEEKS
REMAINED?
• WHY WAS MORE WATER NOT RELEASED EARLIER SO
THAT SUDDEN SPIKE IN RELEASE THAT STARTED AT 0700
HOURS ON AUG 19 COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?
• WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING THIS MAN MADE
DISASTER IN BIHAR AND UP THAT COULD HAVE BEEN
AVOIDED WITH MORE PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF
BANSAGAR PROJECT? WHAT ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN IN
THIS REGARD?
• IS THERE A RULE CURVE FOR BANSAGAR RESERVOIR
FILLING? IS IT BEING FOLLOWED? WHO ARE
RESPONSIBLE FOR NOT FOLLOWING IT? WHY IS THIS
RULE CURVE NOT IN PUBLIC DOMAIN? WHY IS THERE NO
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ON THE BANSAGAR CONTROL
BOARD WEBSITE? WHY IS THERE NO TRANSPARENT AND
ACCOUNTABLE RESERVOIR OPERATION MECHANISM FOR
BANSAGAR DAM?
• WHY WAS OVER 1800 MCM OF WATER REMAIINED
UNUTILISED IN THE BANSAGAR DAM EVEN IN A DROUGHT
YEAR? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SUB OPTIMAL USE
 OF THE RESERVOIR? WHY WAS THE POWER GENERATION
AT BANSAGAR PROJECT SO LOW DURING 2015-16 WHEN
SO MUCH WATER WAS STILL AVAILABLE AT THE END OF
THE YEAR?
• WHAT ACTION HAS THE MADHYA PRADESH GOVERNMENT
TO INVESTIGATE THIS FAILURE AT THE BANSAGAR DAM
AND HOLD THOSE RESPONSIBLE ACCOUNTABLE?
• WHAT STEPS HAVE OTHER STATES, NAMELY UP AND
BIHAR, WHO ARE PART OF THE INTERSTATE BODY
BANSAGAR CONTROL BOARD[iv], CREATED SPECIFICALLY
FOR BANSAGAR PROJECT?
• WHAT STEPS HAS UNION WATER RESROUCES MINISTER
AS CHAIRPERSON OF THE BANSAGAR CONTROL BOARD
TAKEN?
• WHAT HAS CENTRAL WATER COMMISSION DONE IN THIS
REGARD? IT MAY BE MENTIONED HERE THAT CHAIRMAN
OF CWC IS THE EX OFFICIO CHAIRMAN OF EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE OF BANSAGAR CONTROL BOARD, CREATED IN
1976 AFTER THE INTERSTATE AGREEMENT IN 1973.

Location of Farakka Barrage Depiction From : Kalyan Rudra

In Conclusion It is clear from the above that mismanagement at
Bansagar Dam and the drainage congestion and siltation in Ganga
created by the Farakka dam have together created an avoidable flood
disaster this year in Bihar and now in Uttar Pradesh. This disaster is
likely to be prolonged one, it seems, since another high rainfall wave
is just passing through the areas of East Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and
UP.

On the issue of mismanagement at Bansagar project, only an

independent enquiry can answer these questions. Unfortunately, we
have not been conducting such inquiry, nor fixing accountability for
such mismanagement. This is clearly an invitation for more such
disasters.

On Farakka, we need to urgently institute an independent review of

usefulness of the Farakka barrage, its costs, benefits and impacts in
the upstream and downstream. The review must look into all options
including operational and structural decommissioning of the barrage.

We also need to pay heed to the demand by Bihar Chief Minister

about need for a silt management policy. Today we do not seem to
understand or appreciate the role silt and sediment plays in the
functioning of our rivers and river basins. This neglect is playing
havoc with our rivers and also river basins, right upto fertile plains
and deltas, which are shrinking and sinking due to silt not reaching
the deltas. So while deltas are deprived of silt that is necessary for
their survival, the same silt and sand is creating havoc in the
upstream riverbeds and reservoirs.

One hopes we do justice to all these issues. These issues are only
getting more urgent in changing climate situation.

Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com), SANDRP

Board proclaiming that Farakka is the Pride of the Nation. Photo by
Parinieeta Dandekar

EARLIER SANDRP BLOGS ON FARAKKA:

END NOTES:

[i] http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/as-bihar-floods-nitish-kumar-
warns-centre-send-impartial-experts-1446648?pfrom=home-
lateststories

[ii] http://www.mpwrd.gov.in/

[iii]
http://www.cea.nic.in/reports/monthly/generation/2016/March/actual/opm_16.pdf

[iv] http://bcb.nic.in/index.html

Also explore the link to see Hindi version of this report

Like this:

Related

Ganga basin faces unprecedented floods in Aug 2017

Ganga Basin, particularly Bihar is facing unprecedented floods,

starting on Aug 12, 2017. Water levels of Major tributaries of Ganga,
including Kosi, Mahananda, Rapti, Ghagra, Bagmati, Gandak and
Kamlabalan are close to or above the historically highest flood levels
almost simultaneously. This has rarely happened in the past. The
water…

In "Bihar"

Brahmaputra basin faces unprecedented flood wave in Aug 2017

In the morning of Aug 11, 2017, while checking my daily morning

routine sites, I saw the sudden appearance of purple patch (signifying
rainfall in access of 175 mm rainfall in previous 24 hours) on NASA
daily rainfall accumulation map for Indian subcontinent.[i] The
purpose patch covered parts of the…
In "Assam"

Lessons from Farakka as we plan more barrages on Ganga

Introduction “When Farakka barrage was built, the engineers did not
plan for such massive silt. But it has become one of the biggest
problems of the barrage now” said Dr. P.K. Parua[1]. And he should
know as he has been associated with the barrage for nearly 38 years
and retired…

In "Farakka Barrage"