Barada Sarma
The important objective behind this article is to discuss the important issues of floods and various issues relating to the Brahmaputra river that will have major repercussions because of the decisions that are going to be made soon. We should realize that the problems of floods, landslides, interminable water-logging of the major city streets for lack of drainage facilities due to filling up of natural wetlands, and the accompanying death, destruction and misery are due to implementation of policies without any transparency and accountability.In a recent write-up by former Chief Secretary of Assam HN Das published in the Mélange (the Sunday magazine of The Sentinel) on October 31, the total loss suffered by the State in the June-July floods in the State was to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore. Now this is a mammoth figure by all accounts. This should be enough to make us ponder as to how the Brahmaputra and its tributaries had been managed over the last 50 years and how effective flood control measures are necessary to reduce the damage and mitigate the sufferings of ordinary people in future.
Structures in Seismic Zones:The flood losses are distressing, but what is more distressing to me as a consulting engineer, a regulator and a policy-maker are some statements from a paragraph in the article referred to above. The paragraph reads, "In regard to the control of the Brahmaputra by constructing dams in the Himalayas, which is a comparatively young mountain range and extremely prone to seismic activity, I had opposed the proposal to build huge dams along with hydel power stations costing Rs 35,000 crore as proposed by the Brahmaputra Board. The recent fear of bursting of dams on the Tsangpo river (main branch of the Brahmaputra), about with China had issued a warning to India, should deter any attempt to implement the Board’s project. It should be borne in mind that the two largest earthquakes in human history, those of Guwahati-Shillong of June 12, 1897 and Arunachal (the NEFA) of August 15, 1950, occurred in this region. These weighted 8.7 and 8.6 respectively, on the Richter (sic) scale! . Besides that the fear of environmental degradation by extra high voltage transmission lines of 800 or 1200 KV is also real (sic)."
First, if dams, tall buildings, bridges, aqueducts, roads, highways, tunnels and other engineering structures were not built in highly seismic areas of the world, taking into consideration seismic forces that the structure would be subjected to in times of major earthquakes, man could not have made the progress he has made in the last century. Much research has been done in engineering schools and engineering laboratories around the world, including in India (Roorkee), in this field of engineering and research continues to be pursued in this area in many institutions for more knowledge.We should be aware that Japan would not be able to have fresh drinking water for its citizens, being an ocean-locked nation except from desalination plants which are still very uneconomic, if Japan did not build large multipurpose dams with storage for water supply. Also, huge hydro-power capacity would be unavailable for Japan’s industries to make it the second most powerful nation in the world in economic terms, had she not built high, medium and small dams, all across Japan for this purpose. We know that Japan is located in a highly seismic zone and in fact has had major earthquakes all through its history. (I know, over the years, Japanese experts have come to India and the North-east to consult and advise on these issues.) On June 15, 1896, at 19.32 hour, an earthquake of magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale occurred in Sanriku, Japan. This earthquake was stronger in magnitude than the Assam earthquake of June 12, 1897 at 11:06 hour which was reported as of magnitude 8! .3 on the Richter scale by the USGS. Mr Das reports the magnitude of this earthquake in his article as 8.7 which is different from the USGS record. Not that it matters much as to which is the more accurate source. We should realize that these earthquakes are of very large intensity.
The State of California, the seventh largest economy in the world, would not be such a powerful economic powerhouse had it not built one of the largest water management systems in the world. The dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, irrigation projects and diversion structures, hydropower plants etc. that transport water from water-rich northern California to water-short southern California have transformed agricultural practices and production in a big way in California. The growth of the multi-billion dollar agriculture industry, one of the largest in the world, would not have been possible without implementation of the California water plan. We know California is in a highly seismic zone and has had a number of major earthquakes in its history and also in recent times. As a matter of fact, the largest recorded earthquake in the history of the world occurred in a stretch from northern California to the Canadian border on January 26, 1700, Richter scale magnitude of which! was equal to or greater than 9.0 as per USGS data.High Voltage Transmission Grids
Second, high voltage transmission lines crisscross the United States for dependable supply of steady, high quality power to run the great US economic machinery via inter-State high voltage grids. While there has been some concern raised regarding health issues related to HV transmission systems, as far as I am aware, none of the studies that looked into this concern are conclusive as to health hazards to man. I myself was involved with some environmental issues related to noise pollution, higher risk of cancer etc. in connection with people living in close proximity to power plants and HV transmission lines in Austin while I was chairman of the Electric Utility Commission of the City of Austin. Reports presented to us on these issues gave me the impression that much of the health and environmental issues are hyped up with no factual basis.
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