Punjab: Redux of 1988, 1993 flooding, no lessons learnt

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, July 10

No lessons seem to have been learnt from the floods of 1988 and 1993 as the well-oiled nexus of corrupt politicians, irrigation officials and contractors keeps on failing people of the state.

It seems Punjab is once again witnessing the situation similar to September 1988 and July 1993, when 9,221.2 sq km (18.3% area) and 9,757.4 sq km (19.4% area), respectively, was inundated in the state. The studies done post 1993 floods had pointed out non-maintenance of drains as the main cause of the floods.

Non-maintenance of drains

• In 1988, flashfloods affected a maximum area of 2,054 sq km in Ferozepur district followed by Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts
• In 1993, floods affected an area of 1,000 sq km area in Fatehgarh Sahib district. This was followed by Patiala and Gurdaspur districts
• The studies done post 1993 floods had pointed out non-maintenance of drains as the main cause of the floods

According to the Statistical Abstract of Punjab, the state has over 400 drains with a total length of over 11,000 km which cover an area of around 50,000 km.

However, it is a common fact that for the past several decades, the contractors in connivance with politicians and bureaucrats had been siphoning off hundreds of crores in the name of maintenance of drains. The whole scam came to fore in 2017 in the multi-crore irrigation scam in which two administrative secretaries of the Irrigation Department and two former Irrigation Ministers of the SAD-BJP government were probed by the Vigilance Bureau. The investigation is still going on and no one has been arrested so far.

Post 1993 floods, it was pointed out that Mansa and Sangrur districts got flooded due to “congested” drainage. In general, a study done by Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana, had pointed out multiple reasons, including poor maintenance of embankments along the rivers, for the floods. Besides, a lack of maintenance of canal and choe banks by the Drainage Department resulted in breaches at a number of places.

Encroachment of floodplains had added to the disaster, said Dr Shaik Ifitkar Ahmed, a researcher at CRIID, Chandigarh, and the author of ‘Disaster Management: In Wake of a Flood’. “Compare the Patiala situation with 1993 floods, did we learn any lesson. When it comes to drains, the situation has worsened as a lot of illegal construction has taken place around the drains,” said Dr Shaik.

An earlier study done by Chandigarh-based Dr Harsimrat Kaur Gill had revealed that most of the fertile land on the Sutlej banks had been encroached upon for farming and other activities. The recent flood fury was a tragedy waiting to happen. Consecutive governments did nothing to change the situation. “Since Independence, a total of 1.47 lakh acres (57%) of the Sutlej floodplain (land adjacent to river) falling in Punjab has slowly been encroached upon. The total land on the Sutlej banks in Punjab is 2.57 lakh acres.”