Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Apr 30: As the incessant rains brought the water level in river Jhelum close to the danger mark, the residents of Kashmir’s saffron town Pampore couldn’t sleep for the whole night as roaring Jhelum and gushing nearby streams brought back the gory memories of 2014 deluge.
A decade on, the inhabitants of various areas of Pampore that include Kadlabal, Drangbal, Namblabal, Tanche Bagh, Frestbal and several other areas, believe that nothing much was done by the previous governments and the present administration to raise the height of river-embankments.
“Trust me, we couldn’t sleep for the whole night (April 29/30) as water level continuously rose in the Jhelum river. The nearby streams were making so much noise as water was flowing with a great speed,” said Muhammad Sultan, a resident, of Drangbal. Sultan’s house was raised to ground in September 2014 deluge that left behind a huge trail of death and destruction.
“I lost my house and despite the passing of 10 years, I haven’t been able to rebuilt the same properly. Even though, I received some relief and compensation from the government, but its not easy to build house the way it was build earlier, as there are many challenges,” Sultan said. With the first light of the day (on April 30), soon after offering pre-dawn prayers, he along with his neighbour Ghulam Ahmed, rightaway visited the Pampore main market to see the water level.
“It looked as if 2014 was set to return again as water level was rising with every minute and Jehlum was roaring the same way,” he said. “After having my breakfast, I once again visited the Pampore town to see the status of water. Since rain had stopped but water level was still rising. I continued to pray to Almighty to save us from the from the floods this time. Finally, water level began to recede gradually at 2 pm.”
He said that it was unfortunate that the height of river embankment at main town Pampore wasn’t raised. “The work was left mid-way in 2014 and since then nothing was done to raise the heigh of the embankment. The administration must re-start alignment and repair of river embankment to prevent water from entering into residential areas as seen in 2014.”
Abdul Samad, another resident said that there is a dire need of aligning the river embankment from Drangbal to Frestbal as this stretch witnessed many breaches in 2014 floods. “If the rain would have continued today, floods were set to happen. Almighty saved us…. We can’t prevent natural calamities, but we can take preventive measures. One big step is to raise the level of bund (river embankment),” he said and urged the LG Manoj Sinha administration to take immediate steps to -rebuild the embankments especially from Drangbal to Frestbal.
In Samad’s family, not a single family member slept for the night as rumours were ripe that floods will happen given the fact that water level was rising at a great speed.
Many residents including youngsters, who were keenly watching the Jhelum flow, advocated the authorities must start dredging of the river from Drangbal to Pantha Chowk on war footing once the water level goes down. “Our heartbeats go faster every time rainfall continues for two to three days. It is high time those at the helm must start fast-track dredging of the river stretch so that residents of Pampore and its adjoining areas can sleep without any fear whenever it rains,” said Asif Bhat, a shopkeeper at main town Pampore. “Cosmetic measures won’t do, its time to do something concrete on ground.” Other youngsters echoed similar views.
