The big question remains, why ?
Abrar A. Mattoo
SRINAGAR, Mar 23: It has been almost seven years since the disastrous floods wreaked havoc in the Kashmir valley in 2014.
Since, the Srinagar city was hardest hit by the floods, the city’s residents tend to get deeply anxious with slightest rainfall.
“Whenever it rains, anxiety grips our minds. It wouldn’t have happened, had we seen that enough has been done by the government to prevent such a disaster from happening again,” lamented Murtaza Ahmad, a shop-keeper at city center Lal Chowk while talking to the Kashmir Despatch.
Murtaza Ahmad’s garment shop was immersed in water during the 2014 floods. Adding further, he said that he is still struggling to recuperate from the loss because the rehabilitation money from the government was not sufficient even to replace the lights in his shop.
Arguably, Murtaza Ahmad’s anxiety is not misplaced, because tangibly, as well figuratively, it appears that the requisite efforts have not been put into the flood control in Kashmir.
“Zero work has been put into flood control since the past seven years,” said a high-ranking administrative official on the condition of anonymity.
However, its not only people who are dissatisfied with the progress in flood control measures, even the authorities are concerned as well.
Attesting to the fear of Srinagar’s residents, chief engineer, department of Irrigation and Flood-control, Kashmir, Iftikhar Ahmad Kakroo told Kashmir Despatch, “as of now we may not be able to hold the 2014-like flood for 30 more years.”
Though, on one side, the lax flood control measures and incompetence of the authorities to clear the encroachments on the flood channels are to be blamed, on the other, the topography of the valley is also posing a constraint.
“The valley has only 2-Degree floor slope, therefore, a challenge. However, to accommodate more water, in few years we may be able to clear more and more gravel from the river Jhelum and from existing flood channels, and hopefully then, our collective anxiety would subside,” Mr. Kakroo hoped.
