Floods in Orissa, which has killed at least 22 people and affected more than two million during the past week could have been avoided had the authorities are hesitant to release water in the Hirakud dam experts say.Heavy rain and release of large amounts of water from Hirakud reservoir has wrecked havoc on some 4,000 villages more than half of the country's 30 districts, mostly located downstream. At least 24,429 houses have been damaged.
The national government says flooding caused by heavy rains in the upper catchment of the dam and release of water from Hirakud Dam built over Chhattisgarh.The Maha Nadi River, about 350 km from here in Sambalpur district, is one of the longest world.Although it is one of independent India's first multi-purpose river valley projects, main dam is to control flooding downstream areas.
This year it opened its 59 gates, 39 of which have opened within a span of 48 hours to release excess water it received from the upper catchment. This sudden release of so much water was easy to avoid, say.Activists activists against the government should have held out a barrage of water on a regular basis, keeping the weather conditions and forecasts for rain in mind.
Full Reservoir Level Dam is 630 meters. Per policy, should the water level at the dam is held in the first wave of 590 meters August, but this year it was as high as 607.27 meters during this period. "The floods were man made. The government had acted under the flood could have been avoided, said state Congress president niranjan Patnaik.
Total allocation to the reservoir of water to industries was 3191200 gallons per year before 1997, says the government has in recent study.The higher purpose to keep the water reservoir supplying water to industry, failure of monsoon, "peasant leader said.
