Last week, as the Assam Assembly met for a brief Monsoon Session, state Water Resource Minister Bharat Chandra Narah made a startling and alarming revelation: As many as 295 out of the 423 embankments that are supposed to prevent the Brahmaputra and its tributaries from causing floods have already crossed their “expiry dates” and have, thus, lost their effectiveness. With more than half the embankments already ageing, the state has only become more vulnerable than ever before to floods and flood-induced disasters.

Narah informed the Assembly that 13 incidents of floods have already occurred in the state since mid-May this year and have caused damage to 207 embankments across the state.

Embankments, as a rule, have an effective life span of only 25 years, and since most of the embankments were constructed in the 1950’s and 1960’s, what the state Government has been doing is only carrying out repairs and reinforcements to these structures. As floods continue to play havoc against such a backdrop, it has also given birth to a vicious cycle of corrupt politicians, officers and contractors who have been accused of swindling huge sums of money in the name of repair and damage control.

A close look at the list placed in the Assembly by Narah revealed that 30 out of 38 embankments in the Dibrugarh water resource division have already crossed their expiry dates, while in the worst-affected Majuli island, eight out of 12 such structures have surpassed their period of effectiveness. No doubt, Majuli — the island that is fighting for a place in the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list — has been shrinking, with its area coming down from 1,250 sq km to 450 sq km over a period of about 50 years.

... contd.