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Punjab has recently suffered some of the worst floods in its recent history. These floods were not the first and may not be the last either.
Down To Earth (DTE) went through documents including an in-depth study that analysed the causes of floods in Punjab in the last two decades. DTE also went through a Flood Preparedness Guidebook 2024 released by the Punjab government last year.
An analysis of both documents revealed that the problem of floods in Punjab is not only due to natural reasons but also serious mismanagement.
Temporal Analysis of Floods in Punjab (1990-2010) was published in the International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews. The paper studied the floods in the state from 1990 to 2010.
It noted that while the floods in Punjab in these two decades were mainly caused by torrential rains between July and September, release of water from the Bhakra dam on the Sutlej, poor management of rivers and canals and weakening of embankments were also to blame.
The drainage of water is obstructed due to lack of timely cleaning of rivers and canals. Small streams break their banks and submerge fields and villages. Ignoring the repair of embankments causes weak dams to break in the rain and devastation increases.
Citing the example of the 2005 floods, the study said during that year’s floods, a large part of the Kiratpur Sahib block of Rupnagar district was submerged because the dam on the Lotan rivulet had developed cracks.
In 2007, a part of a railway bridge on the Ganga rivulet in Anandpur Sahib collapsed. Due to this, the embankment of a canal broke and about 12 villages were submerged. In the 2010 floods, Rupnagar, Patiala, Sangrur, Ludhiana and Moga suffered heavy losses due to embankment breaches and weak dams.
According to the study, farmers divert water several times by making illegal cuts in canals, due to which nearby crops and houses get submerged. Sudden release of water from the Bhakra dam in 1988 and 2010 also proved disastrous.
Along with this, the irrigation projects of the Ghaggar river area are not designed correctly.Consequently, the drainage of excess water is obstructed and the risk of flood increases.
Punjab’s water resources department published a document related to flood preparedness after the devastating floods of 2023.
The Flood Preparedness Guidebook 2024 stated that flood conditions are created due to many types of obstructions in natural drainage routes, especially structures that obstruct the flow of drains.
The document cited the instance of a railway bridge that became a big problem for a village located near the Sutlej. A waterway was built under the bridge for water drainage. But the width of this waterway was very large. Silt started accumulating during the dry season, when the river is low (a period of 8-9 months). Due to this, the speed of the river’s flow decreased, and the waterway became narrow. When heavy rains occurred in 2023, the deposited silt blocked the water’s flow and the flood situation in the area worsened.
The booklet also cited the example of a road bridge situated on the Beas. The waterway under the bridge was found to be less wide than required due to siltation. Because of this, when floodwaters came, the limited capacity of the bridge was unable to hold the flow. This caused an obstruction in the flow of water and in 2023, the embankments on the right bank of the Beas broke.
Questions have also been raised in the document on the construction of new elevated highways. It notes that the natural sheet flow (surface flow of water) was not properly studied before the construction of expressways or elevated highways and the necessary *causeway* (drainage path) for the drainage of rainwater during the rainy season is also not constructed. The result is that the surface flow of rainwater is obstructed, and the problem of waterlogging arises in the surrounding areas.
Encroachment and urbanisation have also been blamed for floods in Punjab. During heavy rainfall, the natural flow of water is obstructed due to uncontrolled construction and encroachment on the banks of the rivers.
Flooding occurred in the Derabassi block of SAS Nagar Mohali district due to such unplanned development. Apart from this, large-scale planting of eucalyptus trees on the riverbed also obstructs the flow of water in the drains.
Apart from this, questions have been raised on pipe outlets. Pipe outlets installed temporarily by farmers, whether for irrigation or to drain excess water from the fields during rains, weaken embankments. As a result, embankments often break at these weak spots during floods.
Apart from this, buildings and roads as well as local farmers make temporary ramps to go inside embankments. This affects the embankments’ strength and stability.
According to the Punjab State Disaster Management Plan, most of the state is situated on alluvial (flood plains) land formed by rivers. These are old flood plains, which are now visible on higher parts than the current bed of rivers. In between them, there are many sand dunes and small rocks.
The texture of this soil varies. At some places, it is loose. At others, it has carbon deposits. Yet other places have a problem of salinity (saltiness) and alkalinity. About 77 percent of the total area of Punjab is made up of such plains.
According to the plan document, three major plains were identified in the state. These include the Upper Bari Doab covering a large part of Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts, and the Bist Doab, an area between the Beas and Sutlej rivers.
The Malwa Plain covers the area south of the Sutlej and also the flood plains formed along the Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers, covering about 10 per cent of the state.
Their soil is new and layered because rivers continuously erode and deposit soil. This is why the soil here does not become completely permanent.
Apart from this, paleo channels are actually considered to be the remains of old river channels. Earlier, these channels were active. But with time, due to repeated changes in the course of the rivers Ravi, Beas, Sutlej and Ghaggar and their tributaries, these old channels got blocked and filled with silt. Today, these areas are found in relatively low parts on the land.