Dredging the river

Even as Assam continues to reel under the second wave of floods, a report prepared by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has made certain very significant observations on a problem for which successive governments have, since India’s independence, not been able to come up with a viable solution. According to media reports, the Ministry has observed that dredging or desilting of rivers is not considered a technically viable solution for flood control. One reason, it said, is that it can only marginally minimise the magnitude of floods, and could only be a short-term measure. This report comes close on the heels of Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly suggesting the creation of a number of huge ponds or reservoirs in the Brahmaputra Valley in order to reduce the fury of the river during the peak flood season. The basis of the Union Home Minister’s suggestion, however, is not yet clear. But the fact remains that the Brahmaputra is not an ordinary river, and being an international river, any measure to tackle Assam’s floods has to be seen from an international perspective. It has already been proven beyond doubt that various activities carried out by China on the Tsangpo (as the river is called in Tibet) have a tremendous negative impact on the Brahmaputra in India and Bangladesh. It is also pertinent to keep in mind the massive topsoil erosion taking place in the catchment areas of the Brahmaputra, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan. Way back in 1980, when the Brahmaputra Board was constituted by an Act of Parliament, one of the focus areas was to check the rise of the Brahmaputra’s bed, so that recurrent floods could be kept under control. As the Board’s website says, its most important focus area is to control flood and riverbank erosion through integrated management of basins of inter-state and international rivers in the Northeastern Region by involving expertise in domain, state-of-the-art knowledge, and technology, working closely with state governments and other stakeholders. In this context, it will be important for the Ministry of Jal Shakti to make public the outcome or impact of the National Framework for Sediment Management, which it announced in October 2022, for managing sediments in a holistic manner. While this framework places emphasis on sediment management through an integrated river basin management plan, the people of the region have the right to know how they can benefit from it.