GUWAHATI, Nov 26 ? It is high time to demystify the Brahmaputra and other rivers of the State and to go for a paradigm change for their management, said Dr Dulal Chandra Goswami, an expert of international repute on the Brahmaputra.
A vocal opponent of the rage for building mega-dams to tap the hydel power potential of the region?s rivers, Dr Goswami, while talking to The Assam Tribune also pleaded for zonal planning of the NE region?s water resources on watershed basis to ensure its optimal utilisation, hazard management and welfare maximisation.
He also held the anthropogenic factors more responsible for the growing intensity of the flood hazards in Assam and other states of the NE region. High-energy cloudbursts and strong monsoon pulses in the upper catchments of the rivers synchronising with long and persistent spells of rainstorm activities in the valley areas have been accentuated further by prolonged human depredations in the watershed, he said, adding, these resulted in the recent catastrophic events.
Listing the anthropogenic factors, he said, those included intense land use pressure, high population growth? specially in the floodplain belt, destabilisation of the hill slopes due to deforestation, jhum cultivation, various construction activities, obstruction to the natural drainage through unplanned growth of settlement and infrastructures and ad-hoc type of flood control measures like the earthen embankments.
The deleterious impact of the earthen dykes has been once again demonstrated by the large number of breaches suffered by them and the heavy siltation and the shifts in the channels caused by these structures, he said. He also spoke about the damaging role of the manmade as well as natural reservoirs in escalating the hazards of flood, erosion and landslide in the region.
These were some of the major factors, which caused and aggravated the deluging floods and massive erosion hazards in the region during the last rainy season. In the background of growing convergence of expert opinion and mounting evidence worldwide to relate most of such extreme freakishness and perturbations in the atmospheric systems to global climate change caused primarily due to disruptive impact of human interference in the hydrologic cycle, the episodic events of unusual fury assume significance for the region, This is because of the extremely high sensitivity of its physical, socio-economic and environmental vulnerability.
However, in our context, these issues may remain to a large extent unexplored for years to come due to the extremely inadequate and sketchy monitoring network we have and the almost non-existent R&D activities in this regard, he said.
On the strategy followed so far in the case of the Brahmpautra and other major rivers of the State and the NE region as a whole, Dr Goswami also a former Professor and Head of the Department of Environmental Science in Gauhati University (GU) and till recently the Colin Mackenzie Chair Professor at Anna University, Chennai said that the strategy was grossly myopic, ineffective and wasteful. The present dismal scenario in the area of flood management in this region is therefore a case more of lack of appropriate policy framework and institutional arrangements rather than anything else, he said.
On the top of all these, he said, the shroud of mystery and opacity imposed on the Brahmaputra was rather unduly since the colonial times and this was followed practically till date, insulating the rivers from the scanning eyes of the scientists, technologists, professionals and the discerning public. This has made the rivers, specially the Brahmaputra, an unsolved riddle, which are least understood for effective use of their potential, regretted the scholar.
It is time therefore to come out of this quagmire and to demystify particularly the mega river, the Brahmaputra, understand it with its complexities and uniqueness and to work with it to use it as a true vehicle of social change in the region, the scholar said.
The policies and practices for the utilisation of the resources of our rivers in future need to have a broader outlook and their changed paradigm and philosophy of development. As against piecemeal, ad-hoc, short-term structural measures that are being adopted now, an integrated basin management approach based on principles of soil and water conservation as well as sustainable development needs to be adopted. For this, a judicious mix of structural and non-structural measures with a greater emphasis on the latter should form the core of watershed-based regional plan, he said.
Reasoning, the scholar said, management of the vast water resources of the Brahmaputra needs adequate inter-state and international cooperation and co-ordination and pooling of resources and expertise. Unless agreements/treaties, regulatory provisions etc among the co-basin states and countries of this international water body are negotiated among the states/countries concerned, there are likely to be potent areas of hydro-geo-political conflicts and raising hazards, he said.
Unilateral exploitation of shared water resources by one state or country without the prior consent or agreement of the other stakeholder states or countries, may lead to serious regional bad blood and instabilities, the rumblings of which are increasingly being heard today, said the expert.
On the issue of the mega dams, which are advocated by a section of the experts as the most effective solution to the region?s hazard of flood, he maintains that the wisdom behind large scale interventions in natural systems through such activities as erection of mega reservoirs raises more questions than can be rationally answered.
The intense dynamism and immense scale of the geo-physical processes of the Himalayas and the extreme sensitivity of its richly endowed biotic resources and complex human matrix and considering the scanty knowledge base, inadequacy of scientific/ technical data and knowledge base of appreciable time span across diverse terrain condition, makes one to question the wisdom behind such attempts in which the stakes are too high and the uncertainties are too daunting.
Besides, there has been an increasing tide of expert opinions against such gigantic interventions in sensitive environments in favour of modest ones with as minimum an impact as possible. Any wilful deviation from this approach is fraught with uncertainties, which may lead to grave consequences, he said. We have wasted too much time by mismanaging and enraging the Brahmaputra and other rivers of the region with many a sectoral, shortsighted and unfriendly activities.
Let us now initiate a new chapter of positive development with a holistic, multi-disciplinary and participatory mode of management using the advances of new technology, accumulated knowledge and experience and sweeping changes in popular mindset. But at the same time we must have our feet rooted firmly in the environmental, ecological and cultural realities and visions of the region, said the scholar.