Thiruvananthapuram: Well-known Indian social activist, Medha Patkar on Thursday described the floods in Kerala as a “dam-induced disaster”.
Speaking to a local television channel, the activist who has taken up various environmental and social causes in the country, said there ought to have been better dam management practices to avoid the disaster.
“It is very clear that these were dam-induced floods. And the dams need to be planned scientifically, with good capacity building on regulation and monitoring, In the situation of highest rainfall, it needs to be anticipated.
“Internationally, it is once in hundred years flood that is taken as the basis for total planning of any dam. Highest rainfall should also be anticipated. And regulation and monitoring of the dam waters should also take place, not based on power generation but releasing the water even before monsoon to empty the reservoir fully or partly. That probably has not happened.
“There is no safety or security for the fisherfolk who live on the coast, and the same thing is now happening to riverine populations”, the social activist said.
Asked whether she would put the entire flood disaster as man-made, she quipped it was “dam-made”.
