Kosi sorrow: over 20 lakh marooned

KUSHAHA (NEPAL)/BIRPUR (SUPAUL), August 27 : There were two Kosis all of a sudden on the afternoon of August 18 when the river breached the embankment.

While the main river course looks almost dried up now, the new channel is still in the making. The breach at Kushaha, 360 km from Patna, is a story of horror. Though the river switched back to its course of 1932, it ended up changing the geography of many districts — Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, Purnea, Saharsa and Katihar. Over 20 lakh people have been marooned.

The roar of the Kosi at the breach, extending up to 3 kilometres, tells not just the story of a natural disaster but also of bureaucratic callousness and carelessness of Bihar engineers, who were content with dropping truckloads of stones at the embankment as a measure of pre-flood arrangement. The breach cannot be repaired for the next five months. Worse, it is feared that it cannot be repaired at all.

People of Kushaha and Sripur villages alleged slow pace of repair between May and July by Kosi Project engineers from Bihar. They accused the Nepal forest officials of taking a commission of Rs 1,500 per truck to carry boulders. “Indian engineers would come here in swanky vehicles, leaving their juniors to save the river from breaching,” said Hari Khanga, a Sripur resident.

While a Unicef team has taken care of the displaced people in Nepal, the Indian side tells a grim story. Some people from Birpur have crossed over to Nepal.

Supaul is the worst hit with 70 per cent of its area — under Basantpur, Pratapganj, Triveniganj, Chhatapur and Raghopur blocks — getting submerged. Basudev Kumar, a Lalpur resident at Birpur, narrated how his wife and in-laws were surrounded with water at Balua village, a VIP area of Disaster Management Minister Nitish Mishra. “Only 10 small Government boats (carrying 15 people) have been operating in peripheral area of Birpur,” he said.

Thousands of people were still marooned in Bela, Bodh, Banaili, Bishanpur...