The ill-equipped drainage system of the burgeoning Himalayan town has now emerged as a crisis point, with apprehensions that the water could be seeping into the ground, weakening the land bit by bit
Despite several warnings by experts, household water from hundreds of buildings in the disaster-hit Joshimath area had been flowing haphazardly for years.
The ill-equipped drainage system of the burgeoning Himalayan town has now emerged as a crisis point, with apprehensions that the water could be seeping into the ground, weakening the land bit by bit. This, along with reckless construction around the town, seems to be the recipe for disaster. Another factor now being studied for aggravating the crisis is the NTPC’s 12-km-long tunnel close to Joshimath from Tapovan to Vishnugad for a 520MW electricity project.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami has urgently directed that a drainage plan for Joshmath be prepared which he will sign upon without any formalities. NTPC is denying that the underground tunnel is responsible for the crisis, pointing out that it is dry without any water leakage and is nearly a kilometre away from Joshimath town.
However, history shows the tunnel is vulnerable. Fifty-four labourers had died in this tunnel during flash floods at the Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project in February last year due to Chamoli floods.
A central team with experts from seven institutions now has the job of ascertaining the primary source of the water leakage.
TOWN WITH NO DRAINAGE
With nearly 600 houses in the Himalayan town now set to fall, the state government has woken to the task of developing a proper, robust drainage plan. The long-awaited work that failed to take off despite rampant construction in the Himalayan town would now be given an urgent push, say sources. Situated at the toe of the hill, the household water from Joshimath is supposed to naturally flow downstream into the nine naalas that cross the villages and town into the rivers Dhauliganga and Alaknanda.
However, as tourism thrived and led to rampant construction, the natural flow of the water was obstructed by houses and other structures, leaving it to ooze out of unlikely places. Experts say a lot of this water could also have been seeping into the ground, weakening the already loose sediments in the sub-surface. On the night of January 2, in a colony of Joshimath, water erupted from the ground, ringing alarm bells.
Read More: How To Save Your Hard-earned Money From Online Frauds?
Dr Swapnamita Choudhary from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology flagged such risks associated with the poorly planned drainage and sewage system in her report in 2006 and highlighted that it required urgent attention. “The drainage system is not well-maintained. The waste water from the days’ usage flows through improper concrete drains, which are supposed to let out into natural streams,” she wrote.
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) too heavily criticised the drainage system, especially during the monsoon when the situation in the nine naalas is beyond control. The absence of proper drains leads to mud flows in rains, with a lot of water flowing over the roads. Scientists who surveyed the area last year had also highlighted the improper drainage management which was evident in every site they visited, News18 learnt.
Experts had warned that with tourist lodges and residential houses being added in the area at fast pace and the rather reckless development activity, the amount of water seeping into the surface is to increase. The water pipes were found to be bent due to ground settlement.
“The terrain is based on loose sediments so any kind of water that seeps into this has to be taken care of. The town has small drains, but there is no system to see where the water from these drains goes. They have been constructed in an unscientific manner,” says water policy expert Kavita Upadhyay who is currently a research associate in the Oslo Metropolitan University’s Riverline Rights project.
Geologists had also noticed that a lot of seepage had been taking place from streams uphill which was loosening the soil of Joshimath. The naalas disappear underground and arise overground downhill bringing muddy water before joining the Dhauliganga or the Alaknanda.
Latest satellite data shows that some of these naalas have expanded their channels, or they have changed their courses, thereby inducing more slope instability in this fragile slope. Instead of deepening the river bed, they end up eroding the rocks along the river, most of which have weathered over time — a process called toe-erosion.
TUNNEL AND ROADS
Construction of too many roads too has disturbed the natural slopes. The excessive blasting for constructing highways and roads has made the slopes weak and unstable. Vibrations caused by blasting by dynamite and heavy traffic also takes a toll, experts say.
Locals are blaming the NTPC tunnel as well, against which there has been a history of protests in Joshimath by activists. The Joshimath town is in fact built in a sub-glacial zone on unconsolidated glacial debris — a point made by various experts and committees since the 1970s.
The tunnel has been dug already for a length of eight kilometres very near the Joshimath town from the Tapovan side with the use of boring machines. The power project has been in the works for over a decade now. NTPC is strongly denying that the tunnel is responsible for the crisis in Joshimath but the locals do not agree and now a central team will assess the real reasons. The Centre then may have to take a call on this project as well as other infrastructure projects going on in Joshimath, given it is a key area for military movement too.
