After visiting the flood-hit areas of Jammu on Wednesday, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah posted two pictures of 2014 floods and two of 2025 floods of the same spot and commented “Two photographs from 2014 floods & two from 2025 floods. Almost the same spot & very similar damage. What if anything did we learn from the 2014 floods? What corrective steps were taken in the last 11 years? What flood mitigation measures were implemented since Oct 2014? These are all questions that the elected government will seek answers to because the last 48 hours have been a shocking eye opener.”
The CM has raised very relevant question and it needs answer from those who are supposed to deal with such situations. 2014 flood, which killed over 300 people, displaced thousands, and caused massive economic losses, was a wake-up call and should have been understood by the concerned governments and authorities. What happened in parts of Jammu region and in some areas of Kashmir during past few days highlights the lack of progress in addressing the vulnerabilities exposed in 2014. Comprehensive Flood Management Plan (CFMP) was launched in 2015 under the Prime Minister’s Development Package. The programme was aimed to increase Jehlum’s carrying capacity from 30,800 to 41,000 cusecs, but reports suggest that phase II of the project (approved for ₹1623.43 crores) remains incomplete. No major dredging of Jehlum or the flood spill channel has been done since March 2020. In absence of proper dredging, the carrying capacity of Jehlum as well as the flood spill channel has reduced drastically thus making Kashmir, particularly, Srinagar vulnerable to flooding.
The wetlands, which acted as natural flood absorption basin, have been encroached upon and have thus lost the capacity to hold water. No efforts have been made to restore these wetlands or regulate construction in floodplains. Sadly the government itself has destroyed these wetlands and natural channels. Take, for instance, Doodh Ganga near Batamaloo. Once it used to be a fresh water stream and today it exists nowhere. Srinagar Municipality has raised huge structures where it used to be a stream. Even in Bemina area, Srinagar Development Authority’s main office is built on the wetland. The encroachments continue, and projects like the IIM, Transworld University, and NBCC project have further reduced flood detention basins.
Following 2014 floods, promises were made about an alternate flood channel. Two decades have passed and the promise remains unfulfilled. While it was expected that after 2014 floods, the government would focus on strengthening the disaster management system, no progress has been done on this front too as disaster management agencies remain under-equipped. It goes without saying that despite 2014 disaster, the governments here didn’t learn any lessons and that is why this time too, the concerned government agencies were poorly prepared to face the challenge. It is time for the government to wake up and have a scientific, well planned mechanism to face such challenges in the future.
