Uttarkhand er sårbar over for naturkatastrofer, men i tilfældet med de katastrofale oversvømmelser i området har menneskelige indgreb forværret situationen. Den massive infrastrukturudvikling har ikke taget højde for områdets naturlige og skrøbelige systemer, skriver International Rivers.
The Northern Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand experienced widespread flash floods and landslides in mid-June.
The scale of the disaster was huge; at least 1,000 people have been confirmed dead, and credible sources say more than 11,600 more (now considered “missing”) also may have perished.
Hundreds of buildings were washed away, roads destroyed in nearly 800 places, 147 bridges washed away, and more than 10 hydropower projects damaged or destroyed.
There is no estimate yet of how much the damages will cost, but one rough estimate put it at US$50 billion.
The Chief Minister says Uttarakhand will take three years to get back to a pre-disaster state. There is no dispute that the tragedy is of unprecedented proportions.
Natural disasters over such a vast area (38,000 sq km) and involving so many variables – the Himalayan mountains, rivers, forests, glaciers and people – are bound to be complex. Many times, a natural disaster and its impacts are a result of multiple things occurring together.
The current Uttarakhand disaster highlights the anthropogenic reasons that greatly increased its impacts.
Because it is a young mountain, Uttarakhand is inherently vulnerable to natural disasters such as cloudbursts, landslides, flash floods, glacial lake outbursts and earthquakes. Its geology is ridden with numerous fault lines. It is a young mountain system.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of such disasters. In such a context, all of our interventions need to take this reality into account and strive to reduce the risks. Yet in the case of these disastrous floods, it is increasingly clear that human interventions worsened the situation.
It is clear that the lack of warning and disaster management systems in the region increased human suffering in this tragedy. But at the root of the floods was a wonton disregard for the “carrying capacity” of this fragile area’s natural systems.
The human-induced assault included unregulated, unsafe and unplanned infrastructure development along local rivers, including the development of a large number of hydropower projects built in the fragile zone without proper checks and balances. Flouting of rules has been rampant, but the tragedy has shown we cannot bribe nature.
Since Uttarakhand state was formed in 2000, it has been on a path of massive growth with various projects including mining, roads, a large number of hydropower projects, buildings and tourism. But the reality of the state’s vulnerabilities has been completely ignored.
Læs mere:
http://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/257/india’s-himalayan-floods-a-man-made-disaster
