Indian government city plans for Srinagar puts residents at risk of floods
Large-scale destruction wrought by floods widely attributed to haphazard development in Srinagar
People transport a sick woman in an empty water tank on a flooded street. PHOTO: REUTERS
SRINAGAR:
A plan for the development of Srinagar to 2035, put together by the government of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), ignores lessons from the 2014 floods that hit Srinagar and southern IoK, disaster prevention officials have warned.
The large-scale destruction wrought by those floods was widely attributed to haphazard development in Srinagar, Indian-held Kashmir's largest city, and other urban areas over decades. Critics blamed housing and infrastructure construction in former flood basins in the mountainous north Indian-occupied state.
The Master Plan for development of the Srinagar Metropolitan Region, which was open for public consultation until mid-August, is due to be finalised by the end of October.
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Indian-held Kashmir's Chief Town Planner Fayaz Ahmad Khan said the plan does envisage some new infrastructure development in flood-prone areas where homes, shops and government offices have already been built, because of a 'pathetic' lack of state-owned land. The plan proposes solutions for all potential problems, including flooding, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In a letter dated July 27, 2017, and addressed to Khan, the Jammu and Kashmir Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department said it had analysed the plan from the perspective of its own recommendations based on flood scenarios.
Before the plan was drafted, Khan had asked the IFC department to categorise areas as 'undevelopable', 'vulnerable' or "suitable for development", the letter said.
In response, the department advised that some parts of the city should be classified as 'undevelopable' and 'vulnerable', said the letter seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
However, those zones have been designated as "low density residential" areas in the plan, which will "encourage and eventually attract more people in these areas" which cannot be protected "by any means" if floods occur, warned the letter.
Administration 'at risk'
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has also questioned a bid to move the secretariat of the Indian-held Kashmir government, which includes ministers' offices, to a location at risk of flooding.
"[The Master Plan] acknowledges many parts of Srinagar city as highly vulnerable to natural disasters, yet contradictorily gives proposals like shifting the Civil Secretariat to Railway Station Nowgam which, as per the plan, is a highly flood-prone area and a designated flood absorption basin," said Saleem Beg, INTACH's regional head.
The IFC letter also argued the plan would allow construction on an important 242-hectare wetland, Narkara, in southern Srinagar, as its 100-metre buffer zone is depicted deep inside the wetland.
The Chief Town Planner said the IFC assessment had categorised "more than half of the city", which has a population of about 1.3 million, as vulnerable and undevelopable.
"But people already live in these areas, and government and commercial infrastructure also exists there," he said, noting the lack of alternative space for new development.
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The city faces a major land crunch, with as much as 57 per cent of its total area of 766 sq km classed as unsuitable for development, including wetlands, water bodies, forests and areas used by the Indian army, said Khan. "This is why we have proposed some development within the developed urban areas, and also the creation of new townships around the city," he added.
Disaster prevention
The Master Plan proposes - for the first time in over four decades of urban planning in Srinagar - a comprehensive disaster management strategy, he noted. It also includes measures to protect water bodies, he said. "Most significant of these... is to re-establish their connectivity with one another," Khan said.
To prevent recurring floods, the plan envisages afforestation and slope stabilisation, to retain rainwater in the upper reaches. It also recommends the construction of mini-check dams, reservoirs, ponds and canals, and the preservation of natural flood basins, he said.
The plan also suggests that people already settled in flood basins should be relocated in developable areas, rather than backing a proposed multi-billion-dollar flood spill channel.
Experts have said the spill channel could have damaging consequences as it would require the acquisition of vast tracts of agricultural land, potentially harming food security, and could cause large silt deposits in Wular Lake downstream.
Mohammad Sultan Bhat, head of Kashmir University geography department, which carried out a flood hazard study of Srinagar, said the regional government should plan land use in a way that protects residents from disasters like floods and earthquakes, especially in overcrowded Srinagar city.
"The government's urbanisation policy is such that Srinagar city bears the brunt of all the population," he said. With the main government offices and health and education institutions located in Srinagar, people prefer to live there, he added.
Indian-held Kashmir state has 46 towns, but 65 percent of the urban population is concentrated in its summer capital Srinagar, he noted.
"This is what compels the government to allow construction, even in wetlands, which act as sponges during floods," he said. "This is unfortunate."
A plan for the development of Srinagar to 2035, put together by the government of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), ignores lessons from the 2014 floods that hit Srinagar and southern IoK, disaster prevention officials have warned.
The large-scale destruction wrought by those floods was widely attributed to haphazard development in Srinagar, Indian-held Kashmir's largest city, and other urban areas over decades. Critics blamed housing and infrastructure construction in former flood basins in the mountainous north Indian-occupied state.
The Master Plan for development of the Srinagar Metropolitan Region, which was open for public consultation until mid-August, is due to be finalised by the end of October.
Black Day observed in Kashmir as India marks 71st Independence Day
Indian-held Kashmir's Chief Town Planner Fayaz Ahmad Khan said the plan does envisage some new infrastructure development in flood-prone areas where homes, shops and government offices have already been built, because of a 'pathetic' lack of state-owned land. The plan proposes solutions for all potential problems, including flooding, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In a letter dated July 27, 2017, and addressed to Khan, the Jammu and Kashmir Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department said it had analysed the plan from the perspective of its own recommendations based on flood scenarios.
Before the plan was drafted, Khan had asked the IFC department to categorise areas as 'undevelopable', 'vulnerable' or "suitable for development", the letter said.
In response, the department advised that some parts of the city should be classified as 'undevelopable' and 'vulnerable', said the letter seen by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
However, those zones have been designated as "low density residential" areas in the plan, which will "encourage and eventually attract more people in these areas" which cannot be protected "by any means" if floods occur, warned the letter.
Administration 'at risk'
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has also questioned a bid to move the secretariat of the Indian-held Kashmir government, which includes ministers' offices, to a location at risk of flooding.
"[The Master Plan] acknowledges many parts of Srinagar city as highly vulnerable to natural disasters, yet contradictorily gives proposals like shifting the Civil Secretariat to Railway Station Nowgam which, as per the plan, is a highly flood-prone area and a designated flood absorption basin," said Saleem Beg, INTACH's regional head.
The IFC letter also argued the plan would allow construction on an important 242-hectare wetland, Narkara, in southern Srinagar, as its 100-metre buffer zone is depicted deep inside the wetland.
The Chief Town Planner said the IFC assessment had categorised "more than half of the city", which has a population of about 1.3 million, as vulnerable and undevelopable.
"But people already live in these areas, and government and commercial infrastructure also exists there," he said, noting the lack of alternative space for new development.
Three Kashmiri youth martyred by Indian troops
The city faces a major land crunch, with as much as 57 per cent of its total area of 766 sq km classed as unsuitable for development, including wetlands, water bodies, forests and areas used by the Indian army, said Khan. "This is why we have proposed some development within the developed urban areas, and also the creation of new townships around the city," he added.
Disaster prevention
The Master Plan proposes - for the first time in over four decades of urban planning in Srinagar - a comprehensive disaster management strategy, he noted. It also includes measures to protect water bodies, he said. "Most significant of these... is to re-establish their connectivity with one another," Khan said.
To prevent recurring floods, the plan envisages afforestation and slope stabilisation, to retain rainwater in the upper reaches. It also recommends the construction of mini-check dams, reservoirs, ponds and canals, and the preservation of natural flood basins, he said.
The plan also suggests that people already settled in flood basins should be relocated in developable areas, rather than backing a proposed multi-billion-dollar flood spill channel.
Experts have said the spill channel could have damaging consequences as it would require the acquisition of vast tracts of agricultural land, potentially harming food security, and could cause large silt deposits in Wular Lake downstream.
Mohammad Sultan Bhat, head of Kashmir University geography department, which carried out a flood hazard study of Srinagar, said the regional government should plan land use in a way that protects residents from disasters like floods and earthquakes, especially in overcrowded Srinagar city.
"The government's urbanisation policy is such that Srinagar city bears the brunt of all the population," he said. With the main government offices and health and education institutions located in Srinagar, people prefer to live there, he added.
Indian-held Kashmir state has 46 towns, but 65 percent of the urban population is concentrated in its summer capital Srinagar, he noted.
"This is what compels the government to allow construction, even in wetlands, which act as sponges during floods," he said. "This is unfortunate."