Not providential

gujarat has faced damages worth Rs 8,000 crore in the recent flash floods, according to a preliminary assessment; the figure is expected to rise further as more reports come in. Continuous heavy rains lashed the state in the last week of June 2005. The state government conveniently blamed nature, getting Rs 500 crore and Rs 92 crore from the Union government and the National Calamity Relief Fund, respectively. "As against the average annual rainfall of 833 millimetre (mm), Gujarat had already received 745 mm (89 per cent) rainfall up to July 3, 2005. Strangely, the rainfall between June 26 and July 3, 2005, was as high as 609 mm (73 per cent of the average annual rainfall). Such phenomenon occurs once in a 100 years, and can only be god's will," said V Thiruppugazh, joint chief executive officer, Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (gsdma), Gandhi Nagar (see table: When it rained...). But was it actually nature's fury that stormed Gujarat?

Down To Earth visited Ahmedabad, Kheda and Vadodara districts. Village after village complained about how the state highways built at a height acted as walls and didn't allow an outlet for the floodwater. With the waters rising fast, villagers at broke open the highways, bypasses and clogged culverts, but much damage had already been done.

Highways, nay death traps Gujarat boasts of the best road network in the country, with Ahmedabad-Vadodara national expressway as a jewel in its crown. The expressway, constructed for about Rs 600 crore, is built at a height that is over 18 metres above the ground level in some places. Its walls stopped the flow of floodwater from villages located on both its sides. Villagers were left with the only option of perching atop the expressway, the only high ground available to them. The entire villages of Dajipur, Jorapur, Chingodhar, Khatrapura, Hajarpura and others shifted over the expressway, which looked like a long flood relief camp. The expressway itself breached at three places and suffered huge damages.

Following massive protest by villagers and negative media reports, the state government had to finally blame the expressway for the flooding. Local media reports say the state government has sent a sharply worded letter to the National Highway Authority of India, seeking a solution to the problem.

The plight of villages situated along the Ahmedabad-Vadodara stretch of national highway 8 was similar. In one incident, officials at a toll bridge on Kheda l&t toll road were beaten up by villagers. The residents of some 15 villages on either side of the bridge blame the bridge for flooding their villages; they threaten to dig open the road and burn down the tollbooths. The bridge is elevated and blocked the flow of water from these villages, cutting them off from the rest of the world for days. Most villagers lost their houses, cattle and stored grains. For now, authorities have stopped collecting toll on either of the two highways between Ahmedabad and Vadodara, possibly to avoid further confrontation.

There was an added problem with the 28-kilometre (km) Dholka-Bagodara highway in Ahmedabad district, which is under construction. Several diversions were made along this road for traffic movement. But none of these had culverts to drain water. Where they existed, they were either too small or blocked. This led to the inundation of many villages. Villagers narrated harrowing experiences of how the floodwater kept rising and they were not able to cross over to the other side of the road. "The highway contractors had made two diversions on both sides of our village without providing any culverts... Our village was completely flooded for 10 days. We requested the authorities to break the diversions but they refused initially.