Industrial and other Manmade Disasters

Indifferent rain causes outbreak of dengue, malaria and other vector-borne diseases in eastern India, and particularly Kolkata.

Maharashtra suspends Mahyco’s licence for Bt cotton seeds, on grounds of market malpractice in fraudulently hiking seed prices.

 The second edition of the book came out in 2008 just after the devastating Bihar floods in the year when the river thundered down from the Himalayas on its way to the sea sweeping half of Bihar.

It makes some suggestions on the way in which it may be useful to proceed. The article argues that a new case has now been added to the existing list of river-water disputes and that the issue has turned very crucial as feelings are running high on the Mullapperiyar issue in both Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and that there is a risk that the dispute might become intractable. The article warns that wisdom is needed to avoid a serious deterioration of the relations between the two states.

Guest post by: Parineeta Dandekar

This article by Kishore C Samal in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) discusses how in the natural disater prone state of Orissa the authorities have not been able to draw up an effective disaster management plan and politicians continue to play politics with relief works. It argues that for dealing with these disasters and the relief and rehabilitation work that follows what is needed is the participation of the local community and functionaries of panchayati raj institutions, and coordination with national and international bodies.

It has been dominated by reports of  a major cyclone Thane that lay centered on the the 29th December 2011 near latitude 12.30N and longitude 83.00E, about 300 km east-southeast of Chennai (Tamilnadu) and 480 km north-northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka). Earlier reports related to the cyclone Thane indicate predictions and cyclone warnings made by the IMD for the north of Tamil Nadu and the south Andhra Pradesh coast along with possibility of heavy rains and severe winds and warnings for fishermen to refrain from going into the sea.

Later reports indicate that Cyclone Thane has hit the landfall between the Union territory of Puducherry and neighbouring Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu at about 9 am leaving behind a trail of devastation followed by later reports of weakening of the cyclone activity and predictions of heavy rainfall over Kerala, south interior Karnataka and north interior Tamil Nadu

The issue that has been making headlines in the last few days has been that of the continuing debate between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the Mullaperiyar dam. This debate has opened  up a number of issues related to the ownership and use of water between the two states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the context of the current changes and the loss of relevance of the laws and decisions made during the colonial rule; the water sharing, irrigation and power generation needs of both the states; and the recent concerns on the safety of the dam in Kerala versus the urgent irrigation needs of the agricultural sector in Tamil Nadu.

A view of the Mullaiperiyar dam on Kerala-Tamil Nadu border at Kumili.Photo: Vibhu

Image Source: The Hindu

This article sheds light on the history of the Mullaperiyar dam and the background for the current deadlock between the two states over the dam. The current deadlock between the two states over the dam is essentially not a dispute for water, but has its roots in the colonial times, and has to do with the need to come to terms with the agreements and decisions made in those times with changing economic, political and environmental contexts and concerns about the safety of the dam in Kerala versus the irrigation needs of the farmers in the state of Tamil Nadu.

Article Courtesy : Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO)

Author : Ranjan Panda

These large structural engineering solutions not only are obsolete but undermine the importance of ‘integrated flood management’. Time we grow up and design ways to live with floods again.