‘Jhelum dredging not only ultimate solution for preventing floods’
Srinagar: As water level in river Jhelum continues to rise, Chief Engineer Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department Hanif Mohammad warned floods could become inevitable this year and claimed dredging of the river is not the ultimate solution for preventing floods.
“The floods could become inevitable this year also if people don’t do their bit in stopping illegal constructions coming up along embankments of river Jehlum and other water bodies,” Hanif told Rising Kashmir.
He said the water in river Jehlum is very high as compared to previous year during the same period.
The water level started increasing since the preceding night as Valley witnessed heavy rainfall.
The Chief Engineer said only dredging won’t help avert floods.
“We have got to understand that dredging is a process of de-silting the river. The moment we take out a considerable amount of silt, the river brings more,” he said adding owing to media hype, dredging is now seen as a last resort to solve the flood crisis.
According to him, the dredging of river Jehlum is being carried out every year. “Due to unrest last year, the work was stuck.”
He, however, said the main benefit of dredging will only be in Baramulla region because they are giving river a slope and water depth in North Kashmir would be more.
On rise in water level in Jehlum and other water bodies, Hanif said the valley received huge amount of rain this April as compared to previous years. “Besides, the snow has been melting faster due to rise in temperature in past few weeks.”
He cited construction of new bridges on the river as one of the reason for increase in water level in Jehlum. “The construction of new bridges on Jehlum can prove disastrous for the valley”.
“Many of the outflow channels (flood channels) are being obstructed by the developmental works carried out by various government agencies like the Economic Reconstruction Agency,” the Chief Engineer said.
He said there is no 2014-like flood threat today but cautioned that if encroachment around the banks of Jhelum is not stopped, then flood will become inevitable.
Asserting that there has been a continuous surge in the encroachments along the banks of Jhelum, he warned that filling of wet lands particularly from Sangam in South Kashmir to Srinagar city will prove fatal.
“If people want to avoid 2014-like floods then they have to get rid of encroachments,” he said adding I&FC has started drive to demolish all previous and new encroachments.
He urged people to help the department in stopping such activities.
Hanif said the I&FC has already submitted a project report to the government under which it plans to enhance the height of the embankments of the river to 5 feet above the existing level, which will help solve the flood issue to a large extent.
“We have also started a project to strengthen the embankments of the river,” he added.
Courtesy: Rising Kashmir