By Paul Homewood
The BBC has news of the terrible floods in India:
At least 324 people have been killed in flooding in the southern Indian state of Kerala in what local officials say is the worst flooding in 100 years.
India’s monsoon season started in June, but the death toll in Kerala has soared in the past 24 hours.
Rescuers are battling torrential rains to save residents, with more than 200,000 people left homeless in camps.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in the state to see the devastation for himself……
The region’s chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, has described the flooding as the worst the state has seen in a century.
"We’re witnessing something that has never happened before in the history of Kerala," he told reporters……
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-45216671
Rather than blaming climate change, the BBC actually has a rare moment of honesty:
Environmental scientists are also blaming deforestation, especially the failure to protect ecologically fragile mountain ranges in the area, local media report.
Mr Vijayan, the region’s chief minister, has said the situation in Kerala has been made worse by neighbouring governments.
Earlier this week, he and his counterpart in Tamil Nadu entered a public spat over the release of water from a dam.
Kerala has 41 rivers flowing into the Arabian Sea, and 80 of its dams are now said to be open after being overwhelmed.
The Hindu provides a much more detailed assessment:
With the monsoon fury showing little sign of abating, S. Anandan and M.P. Praveen report on how Kerala is coping with an extraordinary natural disaster made worse by a fragile flood management system ….
The Southwest monsoon, which has pounded Kerala with 29.5% excess showers as of August 15, came in spurts, and the dams, which were thought to be adequate as flood hazard management instruments, stored the water. “But there was something unusual about the showers this time. We recorded an all-time high inflow of water into the reservoir lake and also the highest daily rainfall in its catchment area. The phenomenon is cyclical and reminiscent of the great flood of Malayalam Era 1099 (1924),” according to an official of the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), which operates the reservoir. Back then, the showers had lasted over three weeks and while official figures are unavailable, over 1,000 people are said to have perished.
James Wilson, Kerala’s special officer for Interstate Water, contends that the situation now is a repeat of the 1961 floods, the second biggest to hit the State in a century. Had it not been for the ongoing devastating spell of rains that have forced the opening of 36 dams (13 of them on the Periyar) and the evacuation of over 1.5 lakh people as of August 15, it would have been manageable.
It was the flood-prone, low-lying Kuttanad in central Kerala that was the first to bear the brunt — it became inundated in early July. Landslips had already begun to scar the hilly areas, especially in Kozhikode and Idukki. The Idukki and the Idamalayar dams were barely at 50% of their storage capacities in mid-July. But within a fortnight, they were filled to the brim, triggering a debate on whether the KSEB was waiting to monetise the monsoon bounty. The rumour was that the KSEB was reluctant to release water as more power generation meant more money. But as the shutters of the dams were opened one after the other and increased outflow, the situation soon turned grim, leading to a red alert across the State.
Clearly events such as this, though rare, have occurred in the past. Monsoon season often sees bad floods somewhere or other in India, and this time it is Kerala’s bad luck.
But there are also big question marks against the management of dams, which could so easily have prevented much of the disaster.
It is reminder of the fact that, as far as India is concerned, the monsoon is central to its economy, and the more rain that falls the better. Inevitably, this can come with much human suffering.
In this case, the prospect of extra hydro power may have led to poor decision making.
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August 18, 2018 at 01:12PM
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