Embankment is only a temporary solution, especially for a river that brings in a lot of silt.  Scientists and hydrologists all over the world agree that flood can be controlled only if there is control of discharge.  Embankments can at best prevent water from spreading.  However, if there is heavy silting (as is the case with Kosi), it puts pressure on the river’s spurs and embankments.  The breach of embankment at Kusaha is no disaster.  If the breach which is growing by over 200 meters a day, reaches the Bhimnagar barrage which is only 12 km away, and the barrage which crossed its estimated life span of 30 years some 22 years back gives in, it will be a real calamity.  Paradoxically, when the idea of dam construction was dropped, construction of Kosi Barrage, also called Bhimnagar barrage (following an agreement between India and Nepal), with embankments below and above the barrage was taken up as a temporary measure.  The effort could not take off beyond construction and repair of embankments year after year for several reasons.  One main reason was a lack of agreement between the governments of Nepal and India. It need s to be appreciated that there is no international convention regulating water-sharing between upper and lower riparian states and therefore a bilateral agreement between two countries, where the upper riparian country has obviously an upper hand, needs to be reached with lot of groundwork.  Somehow, this could never happen.  It is estimated that in 1954, when the state had 160 km of embankment, the flood prone area was only 2.5 million hectares.  In 2002, the embankment is 3,430 kms and the flood prone area has gone up to 6.88 million hectares.  

... contd.