The announcement of Rs 160 Crore flood-protection and anti-erosion project measures that according to Jammu and Kashmir authorities are underway is a major boost for people here especially those who live nearby the banks of River Jhelum.
As the valley is poised to receive an important investment through the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP-II) which is considered a major development for the valley’s future, it primarily focuses on the Jhelum River, but are also looking at the tributary system, and it is either or both rivers that are running hydrologically.
So these are flood management projects; they just have to wait on nature and the time for previous flooding events will display their effectiveness and completion.
We can see these as a sort of rectifying action of the past, but also are forward looking and are investing purposefully and thoughtfully in this important infrastructure to withstand nature and the tests of time.
An action plan to appraise the embankment strength, build a retaining wall, and apply state-of-the-art anti-erosion techniques are all coordinated action against both flooding and land erosion.
The ambitious project gives hope for the people of Kashmir for benefits to accrue.
Most importantly, it will act as a form of protection for life and property. The existing natural and artificial barriers along the Jhelum have been enhanced well enough to minimize the probability of a significant flood, and the people in the flood-prone areas of the months had a better sense of reassurance about their territory.
Kashmiris and the Jhelum have intermingled for centuries.
The interaction of Kashmiris and the Jhelum in which they have lived, have allowed the river to become a prominent character in poetry and song, a source of life and occasionally fear.
Because floods often robbed quiet seasons of the summer until everything drained and muddy water emptied, some people hardly actually resonate with recollections of flood-actions that enthral our minds and imaginations, required at one time potentially choked or suffocated the specific actions we take focuses, and extended perhaps the same to regulating concern for a permanent solution.
