THE MISSING LIFELINE

The govt must put in place an effective disaster management mechanism to control a spate of natural calamities, says Shantanu Nandan Sharma  IT WAS October 5, 1968. The Kosi river in Bihar played havoc as 9 lakh cusec of water was discharged in one day alone. Forty years later, the survivors of flood fury in north-eastern Bihar are returning to their homes without fully knowing how a repeat of such discharge in a day can ruin them altogether.      The sudden diversion of the Kosi's course last fortnight already inundated huge tracks of Supaul, Madhepura, Araria, Purnea and Saharsa districts, traditionally nonflooded pockets of Bihar's annual monsoon fury. The flood, which has killed over 50 persons and impacted over 30 lakh people in 1,700 villages in the state, has forced the Nitish Kumar government to realise that the impact of the Kosi's change of course would have been much less if officials of the traditional flood belt of the state were posted there.      Yes, experience counts a lot during disasters, but India can't afford to adopt unscientific disaster management modules to minimise impacts of repeated natural calamities. For a couple of days, flood victims in Bihar had no clue what to do, and more importantly what not to do. The Centre swung into action, but it was too late to stop the menace. By the time Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook an aerial survey along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the 11th day of the tragedy and announced an immediate release of Rs 1,000 cr, large-scale damages were already witnessed.      But a bigger tragedy for the country is its inability to put in place an effective nation-wide disaster management mechanism to contain impacts of natural calamities. If Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal could ensure an immediate evacuation of people in response to hurricane Gustav, why can't Lalus and Nitishes fail to deliver the same on a scientific manner? In Bihar, the state administration must share the blame for its failure to meet the unexpected challenges, but the problem is actually rooted in the lack of proper mechanism to deal with such a situation.      Bihar's disaster management secretary Pratyaya Amrit agrees that the flood came as a shock to the administration, but they finally tamed it. "Technology has been a big help in tackling this flood. Our officials in the area were not that experienced to face such a flood fury. However, we got into action immediately. We managed to have the satellite images of the flood-hit areas which helped a lot in undertaking many logistics decisions," he explains.      Significantly, the ministry of home affairs has a dedicated wing called national disaster management, but analysts say it's grossly inadequate to face major disasters in a vast country like India. But the question here is how long India will wait to bring in scientific modes of disaster management. According to official figures, floods in India this year alone has affected 1.8 cr people with a death toll of over 1,700. The damage to crop, houses and public properties are estimated to be Rs 1,850 cr officially, though the unofficial figure will be much higher than that.      As India is still not catching up with the developed countries in adopting disaster management strategies effectively, the losses are mounting. Former industry minister and exchairman of river inter-linkage project Suresh Prabhu says if India fails to move fast, the phenomenon of global warming could spell doom further. "Because of the climate change, the intensity and frequency of natural calamities are bound to rise. It has already been scientifically proven that we will now see a huge amount of rainfall during a very short span of time which will lead to flash floods. In this backdrop, proper water management is critical and challenging," Prabhu explains.      Although the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government initiated a mammoth project to link rivers in India at a guesstimated Rs 1,58,000 cr, the UPA government almost made it non-functional. The idea behind the project was to emulate China and link the rivers in such a way that excess water of one river basin could be diverted to another basin, thereby minimising the chances of both severe flood and drought.      The implementation of such a gigantic project would not have been so easy either, as people from many flood-hit states protested against the possibility of taking away water from their states. Assam is a classic example where there were sporadic protests against such a move. But the question is whether there could be a proper mechanism to divert excess water during monsoon and use it in water-deficient states. Till the end of August this year, about 800,000 people from 11 districts in Assam were impacted by flood, and 14 persons lost their lives so far. And it has been an annual phenomenon.      This year, the major flood in Assam's Lakhimpur district was caused by the release of excess water by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh. There were no warnings till the damage was already done. Whereas it was a clear example of lack of coordination within India, there were instances in which Chinese flood warning from across the border could help the most. Jamshyd N Godrej, chairman of Godrej & Boyce, says what's needed now is proper co-ordination among various agencies. "It is not a very difficult task as well. All it requires is co-ordination among various disaster management organisations and agencies. We must enter into cross-country corporations with neighbouring countries in order to manage situations such as the recent Bihar flood which originated in Nepal," Godrej adds.      In fact, corporate India has always played an important role in tackling natural calamities, but it was mostly confined to giving donations. However, India Inc has initiated some serious work to meet such challenges. Construction major HCC, for example, has sent a team of engineers for relief and support work in flood affected areas of North Bihar. HCC chairman Ajit Gulabchand adds, "We have 26 trained engineers who are supposed to work without border. They help people during natural calamities. Ten of them are now working in Bihar. India Inc now gets itself involved in disaster management in a more meaningful way," he adds.      Yet, unless disaster management is taken more seriously by the government, India will regularly lose its resources. Prabhu asks, "For a long time, we have talked about creating a disaster management authority equipping it with power and resources so as to fight calamities. Where's the authority?"  TOLL TRAIL  FLOOD DAMAGE 2008  BIHAR  Population Affected  30,65,000  No. of human lives lost  54  Total value of damage (in Rs lakh)  364.32  ANDHRA PRADESH  Population Affected  44,28,100  No. of human lives lost  130  Total value of damage (in Rs lakh)  94882.19  ASSAM  Population Affected  7,92,500  No. of human lives lost  14  Total value of damage (in Rs lakh)  9656.7  GUJARAT  Population Affected  17,20,167  No. of human lives lost  81  Total value of damage (in Rs lakh)  22.87  ORISSA  Population Affected  15,14,836  No. of human lives lost  26 With inputs from Shobhana Chadha

Marcel Marceau  - "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop."

Biogas Fuels Big Ambitions

Biogas Fuels Big Ambitions

"Give us things that will help us run engines with local resources. Diesel and petrol prices are killing us farmers," said Ram Karan. I sat listening intently to him at his farm on the very fringes of Ranthambore National Park. The majority of farmers here who do not have access to electricity spend anywhere between Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 1 lakh ondiesel to run generators to irrigate their farm lands. Imagine that amount of money instead being put towards a decentralized renewable energy source to sustain their livelihoods."Give us solar, we are willing to pay!" he said. "I know that there are even solar powered pumps out there."Solar pumps have been questioned for their efficacy especially where ground water levels have dropped severely—and they have in this part of Rajasthan. I was doing a survey on the local biogas plant dissemination project by a local NGO, the Prakratik Society. Though a technology around since the 1970s and considering one of the most abundant decentralized resources available to rural India being livestock, it is unfortunate that not much more research and development has gone towards its advancement. My survey revealed more than just a drastic reduction in fuel-wood consumed by villagers owning the biogas plants (50-100% drop by 100% of the households surveyed): some of the villagers are fueling some of their ambitions in rather unique ways with this old technology.

On this morning, Ram Karan was running his tractor engine with a mix of diesel and the gas generated by his biogas plant. The two cylinder tractor engine used to run the pump usually consumes 2.5 liters of diesel in one hour, but with a mix of biogas, it consumes diesel at a rate of 1.5 to 1.75 liters an hour. The only draw back was the limited amount of gas generated by the 3 cubic meter biogas plant being sucked out more quickly by the hungry engine. Still, it reveals the scope of larger sized biogas plants in meeting additional needs of villagers beyond cooking. The problem with larger plants (those with greater width and depth) being the higher likelihood of cracks developing in the tank—which render plants completely useless. "If we could get enough gas to run an 8-10 horse power engine to pump water, and perhaps some for additional electricity generation, we would be all set!" He touted. Further down the road, a dhaba had been set up near the roadside. "I opened up this dhaba soon after getting my biogas plant," stated Janki Lal."Business has been good [as was visible during my short chai break] and it is so much easier to operate using gas as opposed to wood. But I want my lamp as well!" He was referring to the gas lamps the Prakratik Society used to disseminate with the plants earlier on which failed because of lack of proper infrastructure in place for replacement parts.

One of my final stops was at Ameen's house. He had a large family and ambitions to match the size. "I want to have several biogas plants, or perhaps a few large ones. I will get nearly 10 artificially inseminated hybrid cows [scaling up from the 2 he had currently]. I am going to stop farming and start a dairy," he stated confidently. His cattle will be stall fed by the fodder he will be planting instead. It will including the "sul babul" tree which grows quite well in this climate and grows rapidly.The native cows are artificially inseminated with the semen of high-milk yielding Jersey cows with help of Prakratik Society. With nearly 50% of the respondents (from 7 different villages surrounding the park) claiming they would be willing to take on bank loans to finance more biogas plants, perhaps its time the advancement of this technology take precedence to meet the ambitions of the people. "The jungle is disappearing, so you need to make these plants everywhere," stated Ram Karan—revealing a true grasp of the human-wildlife conflict that is plaguing the countr