State government blames encroachments for triggering floods in Karnataka

Water Resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi  said that a long-term plan to remove structures along rivers is being made and trees will be planted to prevent erosion.

BENGALURU:  What is causing the floods in Karnataka? Just one word: Encroachment. So now, the government is looking at a long-term strategy to fight the floods. After carefully studying the flooding and the consequent damage and losses, the government has identified one of the main causes - narrowing of the flow path of riverways due to encroachments.

The water resources department has identified hundreds of encroachments along the water flow area, some of which are agricultural and others permanent structures.

In what could be seen as a rerun of last year, floods this year have devastated many districts. The flooding is not always due to excess rain or release of water from the dams though they are important factors. Last year, the loss due to the floods was Rs 35,000 plus crore. And this year, the loss is put at over Rs 8,000 crore.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, Water Resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi said that they plan to clear the encroachments along the course of the rivers on either side, especially where stretches have been encroached upon. Once the encroachments are cleared, they plan to plant trees along the earmarked areas so that they can hold soil and prevent erosion.

Jarkiholi said there have been many encroachments in urban and semi-urban stretches, and consequently the course of the river flow has been clogged. Most encroachments date back to a couple of decades. The other issue of flooding is silt in the dams. Once the dams are desilted, it would greatly increase their storage capacity. Jarkiholi agreed that the holding capacity of some dams had come down and they need to be desilted immediately.

He pointed to the case of Tungabhadra where about 30 tmcft of water was redirected towards the Navile balancing reservoir because of this reason.  He said going by the huge amounts of silt there, they may need about 1.32 lakh acres if the silt is deposited to a uniform height of 5 ft or about 66,000 acres if it is dumped to a height of 10 feet.

Some experts have suggested dumping the silt in Ballari where many mining areas and shafts can take a lot of this. But that would mean transporting the silt from the Tungabhadra area to the mining zone - a distance of 53km - involving huge transportation cost.

He said that after the COVID challenges are over, he will seek a meeting with the CM and initiate action on these proposals. Asked about the non-inclusion of experts like Sharad Jawali in the Water disputes legal team and not consulting legends like Fali Nariman, Jarkiholi said he has a plan about this which he cannot reveal at the moment.