Water management in the Sunderbans: State govt official to attend meet in Delhi

KOLKATA: The Bengal government is eager to take forward the expertise in water management by the Netherlands government for flood mitigation, water resilience, coastal protection, delta morphology and embankment damage protection in the Sunderbans. A high-level meeting in this regard is scheduled at New Delhi on Monday. The meeting will be hosted by the Ministry of Jalshakti and attended by the Principal Secretary of state Irrigation and Waterways department, Prabhat Kumar Mishra.

The Irrigation department had signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Netherland government in the sixth edition of the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit held in April last year for technical cooperation in the field of integrated delta management and development of the Indian Sunderbans and coastal areas of Digha.

Consultants from Netherlands have already visited the Sunderbans twice and on the basis of their advice a pilot project regarding construction of embankment for flood mitigation has been taken up at Patibunia near Mousuni Islands and another at Gopiballabpur near Patharpratima. The design for the pilot project is presently being executed and there will be deliberations on it so that work can be taken forward.

“The meeting will involve taking stock of the work that we have done under their advice and what will be the way forward,”a senior official of the Irrigation department said. Infrastructure minister of the Netherlands along with a number of economic experts will be attending the meeting. There will be representation from the Kerala government which is also seeking Dutch assistance for flood management.

“Embankments in the Sunderbans keep breaking whenever there is any natural disaster. Dykes have been effective in preventing flooding of rivers in the Netherlands. So, similar things can be effective for creating strong embankments which cannot be breached easily,” the official added.

The Netherlands, which is known for its expertise in water management, is expected to suggest measures to prevent saline water from sneaking into agricultural soil causing damage to crops and plans for rainwater harvesting.