Patna, Aug. 24: Bihar would not have experienced the disastrous floods in the Ganga if the four-decade-old proposal to construct a dam at Kadwan on the river Sone, around 80km upstream from Indrapuri barrage in Rohtas district, had been completed.
Top officials in the state water resources department, who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said the dam at Kadwan would have easily held back the heavy discharge in the Sone from the Bansagar and Rihand dams in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh respectively following heavy and widespread rains in the river's catchment area.
The Kadwan dam was conceptualised as part of the inter-state agreement on sharing and utilisation of Sone waters signed by Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and undivided Bihar in 1973.
"The Kadwan multi-purpose dam kept getting delayed due to several reasons, including dispute on its height with Uttar Pradesh, central and state governments' apathy towards its need, creation of Jharkhand in 2000, which necessitated fresh negotiations, bureaucratic red-tape and top politicians failing to understand its importance," a senior official said.
The official pointed out that the Kadwan dam was conceptualised with the vision that while Bansagar and Rihand dams will be more useful for Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Kadwan would help undivided Bihar go ahead with irrigation in the Sone canal system areas by accumulating water in the river during monsoon. Bihar has so far no storage system of its own for the Sone waters.
"Though the project did not take off, we are still hopeful that it will see the light of day. Bihar has been insisting on a height of 173 metres for the Kadwan dam but Uttar Pradesh is adamant that it would not be allowed beyond 169 metres. In all possibility, the Bihar government is going to accept Uttar Pradesh's conditions, despite the fact that it may mean some loss of power generation capacity," a top source in the water resource department said.
The dispute over the height of the Kadwan dam occurred because the major part of the area that will be submerged after its construction would fall in Uttar Pradesh, and the neighbouring state wants a lower height to ensure that a lesser area is submerged.
As officials pondered over problems and solutions, the flood situation in 12 districts along the Ganga - Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Patna, Vaishali, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakshisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar - worsened with the death toll climbing to 28 after five people drowned in Samastipur and one in Khagaria.
The number of flood-affected people jumped to 30.31 lakh; of them 3.08 lakh have been displaced from their habitations. As of now, 1.14 lakh people are staying in 274 relief camps being run by the state government.
Though Sone water discharge from Indrapuri barrage, which has fed the Ganga forcing the floods, dropped further during the day and hovered between 2.24 lakh to 2.87 lakh cusec, the flood situation and threats did not ease because the level of the Ganga rose throughout the day and steadied in the evening.
The holy river was flowing above danger level all along Bihar. Its level was 61.26m at Buxar against danger level of 60.32m at 6pm. At Digha Ghat on the outskirts of Patna, it was at flowing at 51.8m against the danger level of 50.45m, while its level at Gandhi Ghat in the state capital was 50.19m against the danger level of 48.60m.
In Bhagalpur, the Ganga was flowing at 34.64m, and the threat level was marked as "unprecedented flood situation". The danger level there is 33.68m. It was flowing at 40.03m in Munger against a danger level of 39.33m.
"The rise in water level of the Ganga has been due to heavy rains in its upper reaches, and a flooded Yamuna and Ghaghra, whose waters are gushing down to it. We are just keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best. The gates of the Farakka Barrage are still open and are capable of discharging 27 lakh cusec," a disaster management department official said.
Though the state government pushed ahead with rescue and relief work, complaints from several affected districts poured in about their absence or tardy pace.
People from flood-affected Mohiuddin Nagar and Mohanpur blocks in Samastipur district said no rescue and relief work has reached them so far. They demanded boats to come and move them to safer places.
"There has been no drinking water, no electricity. People, especially the poor, are starving for want of food, but no boat has come to rescue us. There are sick people here and they need immediate medical attention and medicines. We have contacted the district administration, but it is not coming to our rescue," said Gupteshwar Mishra, a farmer of Sultanpur village in Mohiuddin Nagar block in Samastipur.
Similar complaints were received from other districts including Vaishali, which along with Patna, is among the worst affected districts.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar reviewed flood relief work and said he has already instructed officials to provide food in stainless steel utensils to people in relief camps and funds have been provisioned from the CM Relief Fund.