as kosi river wrecks havoc and india's elite politicians - who are managing policies and processes that squarely favor in making rich more richer - fight it out, the blame squarely lies in their lackadaisical attitude. hindustan times aug 28 editorial sums it all.

well, in india the new delhi based politicians are busy touting their grand 'success' day in and day out. realities seldom matter.

The Hindustan Times, August 28, 2008, EDITORIAL

Not just a force of nature at all

Could the Kosi River Divastation have been allayed by human intervention? The answer: Yes

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and maintenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clearly this has not been done. The re , sult of such a lackadaisical approach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No wonder that Chief Minis ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe".

But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authorities flag off the issue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capacity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of maintenance that was done.

The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has increased, raising the riverbed.

Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least resistance. And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hullabaloo about the river changing its course shouldn't surprise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and main- tenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clear- . ly this has not been done. The re- , sult of such a lackadaisical ap- proach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No won- der that Chief Minis- ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe". But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authori- ties flag off the is- sue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capac- ity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of main- tenance that was done. The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has in- creased, raising the riverbed. Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least re- sistance.

And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hul- labaloo about the river chang- ing its course shouldn't sur- prise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.