Time to take preventive measures

in September 2014, Kashmir witnessed a massive deluge that caused extensive damage to the properties of people and also left dozens of people dead across Jammu & Kashmir. In the aftermath of the floods, the government came up with the idea to start the dredging process in water bodies here with an aim to increase the capacity of the rover Jhelum and other tributaries. However, the dredging was completed in phase-I while the rest of the dredging process was stopped as the study by Pune based company had revealed that the dredging in between Sangam area to Asham here could prove detrimental instead of fruitful for Srinagar City. According to the study, the dredging in between the areas if continued would reduce the lag time, which would give less time to the department to start the evacuation process in Srinagar here. Nonetheless, a few days of rainfall has led to the flood like situation multiple times in Kashmir since 2014, despite authorities claiming to have taken adequate steps to prevent the floods here. Therefore, the concerned Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department needs to take measures in the right direction at this juncture to ensure that the future calamities are prevented on time. It is the time when the government needs to ensure that all the embankments in river Jhelum and other tributaries are strengthened so that the chances of any breach during the flood like situation is averted. There is a need to take more proactive measures and on priority, the encroachment on flood channels across Jammu and Kashmir has to be stopped and dealt with strictly so that the possibility of floods can be avoided well on time.