The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Titli brought to fore how the Odisha Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) is in deep water as far as people’s evacuation, deployment of NDRF or ODRAF or Fire Services personnel for relief work are concerned.
How the OSDMA messed up the things is revealed from the fact that when the IMD had observed that post making landfall near Palasa, 40 km southwest of Gopalpur, the Titli’s location was shown to be at 19 degree north latitude and 84.
1 degree east longitude, which exactly is around the geographic location of origin of the Rushikulya river, the Water Resources Department should immediately have flagged the danger of heavy flood along the Rushikuliya system.
Because the IMD bulletin had stated that the Titli rainfall would be very heavy as it was still a Severe Cyclonic Storm. And given that the slope in the upper reach of the river is very steep, heavy inflow could aggravate heavy runoff of rainwater to the catchment and inundate riverside villages/towns because the river slope flattens there, velocity of runoff slows down owing to congestion at river mouth by many factors including the fallout of Titli.
“Rushikulya is prone to fast flood as the river catchment is in shape of a pear, which means the upstream ends of the river are narrow and the catchment outlet is broader.
In such river systems, the water level rises very fast and peaks up in few hours only.
A proper hydrograph (response of water flow of Rushikuliya catchment to a rainfall input) analysis could have saved the day,” observed a senior engineer working in the Rushikulya integrated irrigation system.
In this context, it is significant to mention that Water Resources Secretary PK Jena told media that since the Rushikulya basin is categorised as deficient now, there was no need to press the panic button. But the alarming flood scenario later shows no hydrograph analysis by the State disaster management team.
Earlier, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), post a field visit to the State after the Cyclone Hudhud in 2014, had found glaring loopholes in the State’s preparedness for flash floods post cyclone as it identified shortcomings like weak bunds in rivers in Ganjam and high congestion at river mouths.
The NDMA field visits found no pre-positioning of excavators, tractors and manpower at block headquarters to restore fast any breaches in river embankments; no stocking of sufficient sand bags or casuarinas at block-level or near vulnerable pockets to meet such contingency.
Moreover, with media reports coming to the fore in Gajapati where about 16 people died in landslides, the survivors claimed of not being informed about the looming Titli threat.
Earlier, the NDMA had also pointed out that in Odisha the early warning dissemination failed to reach the last mile (communities), for which it suggested the State to form State Emergency Operation Centres (SEOCs) at taluk and panchayat levels to make the early warning disseminations reach the communities.
Now, the ground scenario reflects no fortification of the OSDMA as suggested by the NDMA.
The result: not only the State disaster management system is yet to come off age, but the ghost of the 1990 floods in Aska revisited in 2018.
