Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra

Dr. Dinesh Kumar Mishra
Book Shelf : Special discount offer: Between the Devil & Deep Water : by Dr Mishra
The Kosi floods in Bihar stunned the world this year. But the real tragedy is that the disaster had been predicted. It was simply waiting to happen.
Posted on 08 Nov, 2008 09:58 AM

The Kosi floods in Bihar stunned the world this year. But the real tragedy is that the disaster had been predicted. It was simply waiting to happen. The Kosi embankments were completed in 1963 with a designed life span of 35 years.

Sri. Dinesh Kumar Mishra on the flooding of Kosi basin,2008
Shri Dinesh Kumar Mishra of Barh Mukti Abhiyan has been campaigning on the flood issues for a long term. Following is a note from him on the historical context of flooding in the Kosi basin Posted on 03 Sep, 2008 07:06 PM

Dr. Jagannath Mishra, former Chief Minister of Bihar, has given a pathetic description of floods in Bihar. He said that "Nobody from the government has gone to Saharsa so far. If the people in Saharsa are surviving, they must be saying that we are engulfed in water since ten days and nobody is there to think about us. This is quite worrisome. I will suggest that we must try to look after those surviving there. We must try to save them, whether by boats or a helicopter.. The flood in Saharsa is not a flood, this is unprecedented¦.we cannot call it a flood, it is a deluge." But wait, he is not talking about the recent floods (2008) in Bihar. He was making a speech in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha on the 13th September 1984 about a similar incident that took place on the 5th September 1984 near Navhatta in Saharsa district of north Bihar when the Kosi had breached its embankment at 75th kilometer south of the much talked about Bhimnagar Barrage and come out of the jacket just as it happened at Kusaha this year. Obviously, the powers that be refuse to take any lessons from the past mistakes and their executive wing, the Water Resources Department, is immune to any criticism and learning. The 1984 incident had uprooted nearly half a million people from their homes and hearths and engulfed 96 villages spread over 7 blocks of Saharsa and Supaul districts then. They could return to their homes only after the Holi festival in March 1985.

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