Excelsior Correspondent
—Excelsior/Amin War
SRINAGAR, Sept 26: As several parts of Srinagar city are still inundated, the lack of coordination between various agencies of Government left majority of the high capacity de-watering pumps idle for several days.
Sources said that 25-30 high capacity de-watering pumps brought from various parts of the country for de-watering flood hit areas of Kashmir. “Their information was passed to the Government 72 hours in advance before their landing at Srinagar Airport. However, Government took no timely decision about their installation and other measures for speedy de-watering”, sources said.
Some of the pumps were at Srinagar Airport for two days as Government was lacking proper planning where to install them and had not even send the load carriers to lift them.
Sources said that 12 de-watering pumps (capacity of de-watering 6000 litres per minute) with the capacity of de-watering over 10 crores litres per day that were brought from Haryana were stopped at Lakhanpur toll plaza. “When these pumps finally reached Srinagar they were not installed for three days as there was no plan where to install them. There were minor issues including lack of diesel at the locations for various other pumps”, sources added.
An official said that a huge dewatering pump of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was flown in by IAF from Mumbai but it did not have the compressor required for operating it.
“The team accompanying the pump did not point it out and the officials who must have found that the compressor was left behind at the loading bay also did not inform anyone”, the official said.
“The pump was first installed at Badami Bagh and it had no compressor. The ONGC staff asked the Mechanical Irrigation Department to provide the compressor. The same pump was then brought to Gogjibagh flood channel bank and remained idle for 24 hours there. The pump was not utilized at all”, the official said.
There is still 3-4 feet of water in Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh and adjacent areas of Srinagar city where de-watering was started from 12 days ago. The major contribution for de-watering was cutting of Jhelum and flood channel embankments at least at six places as pumps were suffering from management issues.
Bashir Ahmad, a resident of Gogjibagh said: “We are desperately waiting for waters to recede but they are not receding. Over 100 houses have collapsed in Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh and adjacent areas since September 7 when floods hit Kashmir. The other houses have been partially damaged and other houses are vulnerable to cracks and collapse.”
In Bemina, Qamarwari, Batmaloo and several other localities water is not receding at all. The residents are desperately waiting for de-watering as water is not receding through cuts.
An official said that lack of proper management and coordination between various agencies is hampering the distribution of relief and rehabilitation of the affected people.
Over 25, 000 people have lost their shelter while 2.25 lakh houses were damaged. As the winter nears in these people require strong roof over their heads and concrete four walls around them to keep themselves warm during the winter when temperatures can fall several degrees below freezing point in Kashmir.
Farooq Ahmad whose house at Jawahar Nagar collapsed in the floods said that the area is still water logged and winter is one month away and asked “when will Government rehabilitate us.”
“We should have provided timber, CGI sheets, bricks, cement and other building material by now so that we could construct at least two concrete rooms with a roof over head to face the winter chill,” said Farooq.
An official said that the rehabilitation process is not only slow but it has not even started yet. He said that there is chaos and lack of coordination among various Government departments.
The official said that there will be major crisis of work force for rebuilding of structures as Government facilitated fleeing of non-local labourers. “Thousands of them were airlifted while Government could have retained them here for re-building houses and other structures”, he said.
However some senior officer told Excelsior that pumps of ONGC are not workable for dewatering the flood waters from low lying marooned areas and slush pumps are needed for the purpose which will dewater muck also from the marooned areas of Capital city.
Though high capacity five cusec pumps have been dispatched by GoI but more pumps are needed as small pockets will be exposed with their installation, said a senior engineer of Hydraulic Wing.
However the people in Srinagar city and its surrounding areas have expressed serious concern over the failure of Government in depleting water from marooned areas of Srinagar like Bemina, Raj Bagh, Jawahar Nagar etc even after the 21 days of the disaster.
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