[Assam] [WaterWatch] Re: Dr Kalam's obsession with DIVERSION of RIVERS

[Chan Mahanta]

I agree with Sudhir's concerns about Mr. Kamraj and others like him 
who have peddled a lot of half-truths regarding ILR and now this NWP. 
When a lay-person parrots patently untenable ideas in the guise of 
technical/engineering/scientific  truths, not having a clue what 
those might really mean, like our other friend Dr. Kalyanraman used 
to; it is one thing.  But it is quite another, when these are spouted 
by self-described or 'officially recognized 'experts' , be it Mr. 
Kamraj or be it Mr. Pandit. Dinesh gave graphic and tragic examples 
of it. The mere fact of Mr. Kamraj being able to cite The President's 
concurrence with his scheme in public  is scary. We cannot not 
remember the SC's verdict regarding ILR,  its interpretation by the 
administration and the fallout along with the expenditures incurred 
so far is nothing less than a national scandal.

That brings me to another point: The  need to go to the SC or to 
petition the PM or the President for resolution of every conflict, 
large or small.  While it is easy to understand  it in light of the 
dysfunction of the normal and usual institutions of democratic 
governance and the impossibility of forging the political will to the 
right things thru the specific institutions of state designed to 
address these issues, the need to move the SC on such complicated 
matters is a dangerous thing in itself.  Do  their Lordships have the 
appropriate resources at their disposal to JUDGE the merits of  such 
schemes? Can they hold public hearings , receive input from affected 
parties, get technical/scientific opinions from trusted and respected 
voices, obtain trustworthy cost-benefit reports; so on and so forth? 
The right forum for such thorough, public and transparent 
examinations on matters of such national importance would be the Lok 
Sabha or the Rajya Sabha.  On the other hand, if the SC is moved, and 
it hands out as verdict without the benefit of a thorough examination 
of the many factors involved and it happens to be the WRONG verdict, 
people will be stuck with it for ever, since there is no appeal to an 
SC verdict. On the other hand a bad decision by the elected bodies 
can be corrected later, if need be.

Finally, Dinesh pointed out an extremely important element of this 
NWP canal to be constructed at 500 m  elevation ( or 300 m): That it 
will be a monster earthen dam, from here to eternity. ALL of the 
terrain surrounding the Brahmaputra valley at such an elevation ( 500 
m or even 300m) are up in the mountains where the contours undulate 
many times within the span of a kilometer, zigzagging in and out from 
ridges to ravines. So the 100 m wide canal will have to cut into the 
ridges, scarring the entire
rim of the valley, with massive erosion like man has not seen 
anywhere on the face of this planet yet. And on the other side , 
there will have to be even more massive filling of an already sloping 
face, which of necessity , will be steep, and will erode even more 
dramatically with the onset of the first monsoon. Imagine the silting 
of the hundreds of tributaries of the Brahmaputra  and the rice 
producing low-lands that will ensue. Silting  is one of the primary 
causes of the present flooding of the valley to begin with.
And such silting will drown out the rich topsoil of the rich rice 
lands, turning them into a clay mire. But the worst is yet to come: 
Each of the thousands of valleys that the canal will block, will be 
turned into minor to major reservoirs upstream of the canal. The 
canal  will act like thousands of earthen dams, except these could 
not be built like dams.  It will have to be ordinary PWD earth-moving 
operations, and of commensurate quality.

And need I go into what will happen when one such dam gives ? That it 
will happen is a certainty, be it from rains or from seismic activity.

cm








At 4:08 PM +0530 3/9/07, S G Vombatkere wrote:
>Dear Uma,
>
>I cannot imagine anyone taking Mr.Kamaraja's design seriously, but 
>I'm afraid we have to take Mr.Kamaraja seriously, because he has 
>potential for enormous damage, especially if he is as influential as 
>he makes out to be. I wonder what would be Dr.Kalam's take on his 
>"concept" that appears to defy the law of gravity (water and of the 
>law of conservation of energy.
>
>I do hope he names the scientists / engineers in IISc and IIT as I 
>have asked - if he does not, then we will know his concept for the 
>sad hoax that it appears to be.
>
>Sudhir
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:umanarendranath at yahoo.co.in>Uma Shankari
>To: <mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>Chan Mahanta ; 
><mailto:sgvombatkere at hotmail.com>S G Vombatkere ; 
><mailto:WaterWatch at yahoogroups.com>WaterWatch at yahoogroups.com ; 
><mailto:ackamaraj at hotmail.com>ackamaraj at hotmail.com
>Cc: <mailto:ramaswamy.iyer at gmail.com>ilrRAMASWAMY R. IYER ; 
><mailto:mukta_srivastava at yahoo.com>ilrMUKTA SRIVASTAVA ; 
><mailto:jayanta at iimcal.ac.in>ilrJAYANTA BANDYOPADHYAY ; 
><mailto:ht.sandrp at gmail.com>ilrHIMANSHU THAKKAR ; 
><mailto:dineshkmishra at rediffmail.com>ilrDINESH KUMAR MISHRA ; 
><mailto:devchat at gmail.com>ilrDEVASHIS CHATTERJEE ; 
><mailto:krishnagreen at gmail.com>ilrGOPAL KRISHNA ; 
><mailto:umanarendranath at yahoo.co.in>napmUMA SHANKARI ; 
><mailto:sudhirendar at vsnl.net>ilrDr.SUDHIRENDAR SHARMA ; 
><mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>ilrCHANDAN MAHANTA
>Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 12:29 PM
>Subject: Re: Dr Kalam's obsession with DIVERSION of RIVERS
>
>Mr. Kamaraj has for far too long been avoiding answering specific 
>questions, like contour details of "his" canals vis-a-vis the 
>contours of the region/area through which they would flow; nor has 
>he directly answered the common sense question of how water will 
>flow from lower contour to higher contour, unless there is a 
>technology involved, (like a sea- saw mechanism, by which when water 
>fills up in one part it will tilt and allow the water to flow to the 
>part where there is no water!). He can't go on talking to engineers 
>in a mysterious way or as if these are trade secrets; he should 
>reveal his design with details. Otherwise it is high time we stopped 
>taking him seriously. But the trouble is that such people will keep 
>themselves in business by some way or the other and will keep 
>blowing up public money. So one way is to ask under the RTI or PIL 
>for the details of the design or answers to the questions. Uma
>Chan Mahanta <<mailto:cmahanta at charter.net>cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
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