Guys I am just very curious as what u think was the main reason behind Koshi flood. Who is to blame. Is it just a technological flaw or there is something more to it.

My understanding so far:

British India always had view that the flow of Koshi should never be obstructed. But After they left. a dam was constructed and treaty made where maintenance was responsibility of Indian side i.e, Bihar govt.. and because of violent nature of the river, at a way too low flow value, the disaster happened.

Lack of maintenance of barrage

Blame game, security threats from local thekedar and others

Koshi is simply way too huge water flow to check its flow by constructing a dam, It should be left to follow its nature course.

What do u think??

Why this happened when the flow was way too low than the capacity that could be sustained (9.5 lakh cusecs I guess).

if india had wisened up and supported a hydro power project in nepal..this would have never happened

Well all the info that I have had so far suggests this :

Historically Koshi was a matter of debate during the British rule in India. They were in two minds whether to construct a barrage or not. Finally they thought it's wise to let it follow the natural course.

Reason: Koshi while following drags a lot of sediments when it flows down south, thus raising the level of river and requiring more room to manuever. Plus it's one of the MOST VIOLENT rivers in the world, let alone Asia.

After the construction of barrage: which essentially confines the flow, the Koshi Treaty was done whereupon it's India's responsibility to take care of the maintenance and rehab. of the structure.

Technical/design flaw: Koshi should have been left alone.

Maintenance flaw: Though the treaty was between India and Nepal govt. the project has handed over to the State of Bihar. In today's time when Bihar is one of the worst states in India, totally failed to be upto the task of taking care of the maintenance.

The structure has capacity to sustain a huge flow (9.5 lakhs cusec, I am still not sure about this number).

The Nepalese engineer so many times reported Bihar counterpart for maintenance but they turned blind eye. He was so pissed he wrote a letter to embassy and Narayanhiti.

The Indian team, though very late, came to check on the maintenance but were threatened by the locals in Nepal (u know those typical contractors and so) and left for their safety.

Result : At a flow much less than the capacity, the disaster happens. That's totally ridiculously stupid. The blame game can go, but as long we are third world countries, and have attitudes like this where the structure is constructed and thereafter everyone can go to hell, these disasters will hapeen again and again and again.

One only needs to look at Hurricane Gustav. The FEMA, Gov of LA Bobby Jindal, even Presiden Bush, national guard has such a terrific coordination among their respective federal, state level, and local levels that it's an example as how to minimize the impact of a natural disaster.

We can't stop a natural disaster from happening, but can surely do a lot to minimize it's effects.

They learnt from Katrina experience, thus evacuation, safe passage, law and order prevailed ....and guess what levies didn't fail this time which were reconstructed by Army Corps of Engineers.

Well an investigation needs to be done to see who is at fault and they need to be tried in court.

BY THE WAY RAJESHKC, INTERESTINGLY, WHICH HYDROPOWER PROJECT U R TALKING ABOUT THAT WOULD HAVE PREVENTED THIS INCIDENT. FOR HYDROPOWER PROJECT, U YET AGAIN HAVE TO CONSTRUCT A DAM. WHERE DO U THINK THE DAM SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONSTRUCTED, AND WHAT WAS THE CHANCES THE DAM WOULD MINIMIZE THE LIKELIHOOD OF A REPEAT OF THIS INCIDENT.

JUST CURIOUS , COULD U PLZ ELABORATE.

KOSHI DIDN'T CHANGE THE COURSE, IT WAS FORCED TO CHANGE THE COURSE...that's what some experts say.

 

Koshi flood was not a natural disaster, but a man-made tragedy. -- Deepak Gyawali

http://www.kantipuronline.com/interview.php?&nid=159078

CAn anyone tell me in a objective way what Koshi treaty says. Does it help Nepal in any way. If not why the f*** this treaty was signed. If yes, how? Why India would be careless when the river damages it thousand times more than it does Nepal ?

 

Not floods but criminal design failure

 

Sadananda Menon

Business Standard

Sept. 5, 2008

 

No one has pointed out that it was a 50-year-old time-bomb waiting to explode. Even as the first of this modern-Indian project of embanking the Kosi began in 1955, it was clear that a recipe for disaster had been drawn up and that Bihar was due for a jala-samadhi sooner or later.

 

There is an attempt to treat the August 18 breach in the eastern embankment of Kosi at Kusaha, on the Indo-Nepal border, as some kind of a unique, one-off event. As if this was a ‘natural disaster’ due to unusually heavy rainfall in the Himalayan slopes from where the river originates. Worse, as if Nepal was to blame, as it allegedly reneged on its commitments to maintain and dredge the barrage and the embankments on its side of the border due its preoccupation with the political change of guard there.

 

No one has so much as whispered that the maintenance of the barrage and the embankments is the responsibility of the engineers of the Bihar Water Resources Department. Demonising Nepal is one of those convenient blame games the media likes to indulge in and it is not new, in the context of a drowning Bihar. In earlier years too such accusations have been made along with contradictory proposals to seek multi-national corporate investments to build and operate mega dams on the Nepal part of the river, particularly the Kosi High Dam at Barahkshetra.

 

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=333521