Towards a better flood governance in the Koshi River Basin
By: Yaduka, Rahul Kumar
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Material type: 
BookPublisher: Bihar Journal of Public Administration Description: 20(2 S), Jul-Dec, 2023: p.561-575.
In:
Bihar Journal of Public AdministrationSummary: The Koshi river, because of its vagaries, has been ill-famous as “the river of sorrow” in the dominant discourse. The destruction brought by the river and the political-economic and governance-related requirements were considered by the British rulers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century but the consequences of river control projects in other parts of the country compelled the British to drop the idea. In the run-up to the independence, the post-independence Indian state pushed for river control, and the floods of 1953 allowed the government to go ahead with the contentious idea. The Koshi Project of 1954 provided a pair of embankments, a barrage and a pair of canals. The broader agenda was flood protection, irrigation and hydropower generation. An elaborate administrative machinery has also been put into place to administer and manage this structural mammoth. There have been extensive studies on the impact of embankments and the effectiveness of the Koshi Project. However, the role of the bureaucratic machinery in the construction and management of the embankments and flood relief work has been understudied. This paper discusses the role of the water resource department and the disaster management department in the flood governance of the river Koshi. Through literature review and extensive field studies, the paper also critically reflects on the performance of the institutional framework and concludes with some suggestions. The field studies have been done in the Supaul district of Bihar.- Reproduced
http://www.iipabiharbranch.org/
| Item type | Current location | Call number | Vol info | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | 20(2 S), Jul-Dec, 2023: p.561-575 | Available | AR131263 |
The Koshi river, because of its vagaries, has been ill-famous as “the river of sorrow” in the dominant discourse. The destruction brought by the river and the political-economic and governance-related requirements were considered by the British rulers in the last quarter of the nineteenth century but the consequences of river control projects in other parts of the country compelled the British to drop the idea. In the run-up to the independence, the post-independence Indian state pushed for river control, and the floods of 1953 allowed the government to go ahead with the contentious idea. The Koshi Project of 1954 provided a pair of embankments, a barrage and a pair of canals. The broader agenda was flood protection, irrigation and hydropower generation. An elaborate administrative machinery has also been put into place to administer and manage this structural mammoth. There have been extensive studies on the impact of embankments and the effectiveness of the Koshi Project. However, the role of the bureaucratic machinery in the construction and management of the embankments and flood relief work has been understudied. This paper discusses the role of the water resource department and the disaster management department in the flood governance of the river Koshi. Through literature review and extensive field studies, the paper also critically reflects on the performance of the institutional framework and concludes with some suggestions. The field studies have been done in the Supaul district of Bihar.- Reproduced
http://www.iipabiharbranch.org/
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