Floods in Bihar have become so much a commonplace in the newspaper headlines over the years that now people have stopped noticing it. Every year most of the districts of north Bihar gets flooded , people are asked to evacuate their homes and finally some staggering amount of money is allotted to flood relief teams in the name of rescue operation. This has become so trite that it no longer fetches of attention of the people of the country. Who is the taker? Certainly the poor and the helpless residents of flood affected villages. It’s impossible for people like us (sitting in a comfortable room) to imagine about the degree of helplessness of flood affected people. It pains me more when our government tries to tackle the situation by declaring it a national calamity and hence releasing a huge sum of Rs 1000 crore for relief operations to the inefficient government organizations. God only knows how much money reaches the actual needy. When the flood is gone and everything is settled some scam will be exposed and everybody will come to know that all the flood relief was availed by Sarkari Babus. What is more disturbing is that such a situation arises every year.
Why can’t we avoid floods and save poor people's assets from getting washed away every year. Every fifth grader also knows the cause of the flood, then why aren't we able to remove the root cause? According to major national dailies heavy to very heavy rainfall in the foothills of the Himalayas causes north Bihar to flood every year. Although this cause may seem trivial but it isn't. But the logic given by government that Nepal is not supportive and hence we are not able to arrive at a solution is also unacceptable to me. How can a country which is totally dependent on India be so insensitive to the problems of Indian people, moreover if it is really the case then it must be dealt strictly. We will have to learn straightening people outside India who are insensitive to India's genuine concerns. We all are witnessing what happens when we fail to do so.
Even if we get done the above correction, then also the chances of improvement in the situation are very grim unless our government sheds its laggardness and comes up with some concrete engineering solution. Our policy makers spend so much of their energy on planning how to rectify the situation once it has worsened by making NDMC type of things. I fail to understand that why don't they recourse to measure which will prevent the flood from occurring in the first place. Why can't we in lieu of allotting money for relief operations after the flooding has taken place, give the money to some private engineering consultancy or to some eminent institution like the IIT's or to a collaboration of both and ask them to come up with some exact solution. They certainly will. Our policy makers will have to learn to depend on and trust in technology. Bottom line is that it would be much better for flood affected people if we could save their assets along with their life by prohibiting the floods from occurring.
