Droughts and Floods

When the foundation stone for the Kosi embankment was laid on January 14, 1955, near Nirmali in Saharsa district in Bihar, euphoric people shouted, Aadhi roti khayenge, Kosi bandh banayenge (we will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the embankment), writes the prolific engineer and activist Dinesh Mishra in his book, “ Trapped! Between the Devil and the Deep Waters.” No one really paid any attention to the protests and the fears of the people who would live with these embankments and what would happen to their lives.

This video from the marathi news channel Star Majha, describes farmer-scientist Arun Deshpande's work on conserving water, through a "Water Bank", in other words, an on-farm pond with a capacity of about 5 crore litres of water, in drought-prone Solapur district of Maharashtra.

Arun is part of Prayog Pariwar (a collaborative network of self-experimenting farmers, initiated by renowned scientist Shripad Dabholkar) and some more details about his work on watershed development are here. Arun's blog is here.

Watch the video:

Food Distribution in K-Plot on Feb 17th

In face of the dire situation in Aila Affected areas, AID EB approved Rs. 1,50,000 for distribution of food in the remote island of K-plot and Nagenabad area of Moipith island. AID has been working with Baikanthapur Tarun Sangh (BTS) since Aila, on relief/rehabilitation and the revival of agriculture in the area.

Guest post by Somnath Mukherji

 Attached here are a series of reports from the Government of Karnataka, providing details of the status and relief activities in the immediate aftermath of the floods in N.Karnataka. The reports contain the following information and more:

 Detailed rainfall information for the time period of interest

Loss of human life and livestock,

Damage to houses,

PMO FORWARDS PETITION ON KOSI TRAGEDY TO HOME MINISTRY FOR APPROPRIATE ACTION

Prof.Suraj Yadav, Assistant Professor in Delhi University reports

Like majority of our rivers, Kosi too is a goddess - the daughter of Lord Shiva. Nicknamed `the sorrow of Bihar' by the male-dominated engineer-contractor -politician lobby, the river has been searching for its identity ever since. Ironically, most of what has been seen and written on the hydrological engineering imposed on the river has been by `men' only.

M.Gopalakrishnan speaking on Policy Issues (Photo: Praveena Sridhar)

This case study published in Yojana documents Megh Pyne Abhiyan's work in organising access to safe drinking water for rural communities during the 2006 and 2007 floods in North Bihar. As a result of the Abhiyan's work, approximately 13000 and 36000 people accepted and accessed rainwater as a safe drinking water during the North Bihar floods of 2006 and 2007 respectively. Using rain water for drinking led to significant improvement in health indicators and flood-related deaths and sickness, as well as reduction in health expenditure.

On 15 November 2009, I set out to gather see how people were coping in the aftermath of the floods that hit parts of North Karnataka. We chose to visit Gudisagar in Navalgund Taluk in Dharwad district.