Indian planners and MP'S and "Technolgists" --well let's hope they will. Last evening I attended a 1-hour speech by Dr R Chidambaram -topmost Technology adviser to Govt of India. He said "Lots of good work has gone into Embankments and (Bank-collapse) Erosion prevention measures --all over India- and lot more will be done soon ---to take us to the ranks of Developed Nations"
And last week we saw tears running the MP Chief Minister's cheeks when he said during MOU signing of Plan to Link 2 small streams in MP and UP " This was Atalji's Dream". Nobody asked for nor got quantification and WHAT-IF data about the losers ,gainers, bottom line .Nobody in the chain can answer --How many cubic meter will flow -daily-monthly-yearly-which way? Manmohan was beaming throughout. Not that he knew any better. mm ps: should Assamnet copy these to Tarun,Manmohan,Bhairaw,Mulayam,Sonia,??? >From: Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [email protected] >Subject: [Assam] From the New York Times >Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 12:36:42 -0500 > >The following is from today's New York Times. >http://nytimes.com/2005/08/31/national/nationalspecial/31levee.html > >*** Would this teach the riverlinkers and big dam builders anything? > >cm > > > > > > >Geography Complicates Levee Repair > > >By CORNELIA DEAN and ANDREW C. REVKIN > >Published: August 31, 2005 > > >Until engineers can repair breaks in the huge levees that separate >New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain, the city will essentially be an >arm of the Gulf of Mexico, subject to the ebb and flow of the tides. >Enlarge This Image > >Vincent Laforet/The New York Times >Water engulfed much of New Orleans yesterday, and officials feared a >steep death toll after breaches in the levees sent the waters of Lake >Pontchartrain pouring into the city. > >And because the tidal pull widens the breaks, experts said yesterday, >that will make it all the harder to repair them - the first step in >restoring the inundated city to normal. > >Last night, even as engineers scrambled to figure out ways to plug a >levee breach on the 17th Street Canal, Mayor Ray Nagin, in an >interview on WWL-TV, said the waters in neighborhoods east of the >breach were rising so fast they might cause the nearby pumping >station to fail. > >"We've been living in this bowl," said Shea Penland, a coastal >geologist who has studied storm threats to Louisiana for years. "And >then Katrina broke channels into the bowl and the bowl filled. And >now the bowl is connected to the Gulf of Mexico. We are going to have >to close those inlets and then pump it dry." > > John Hall, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said last >night that the corps and other agencies were "in a great frenzy" to >figure out how to plug the 300-foot gap along the 17th Street Canal. > >The narrow canal, which is used to drain water pumped out of the >eternally soggy city, is not accessible by barge, in part because a >newly built low bridge and hurricane barrier sits 700 feet down the >canal toward the lake end. > >"We can't get at it," Mr. Hall said. > >Mr. Hall said that the levee failed as the surge from the storm swept >in through Lake Pontchartrain, actually a broad inlet off the gulf, >and began sloshing over the vertical steel and concrete wall and the >earthen berm behind it. > >"Once it got over, it began to scour down at the base of that flood >wall on the protected side," he said. > >The rising waters in the canal pushed in on the high part of the >retaining wall while water cascading over the top ate away at the >base, Mr. Hall said, adding: "The effect is like a high-low tackle in >football. You hit the head and feet at the same time from opposite >directions, and it goes down." > >Another problem is that whatever is done to block the breach must not >also block the canal itself, because that would impede the pumping of >the floodwaters. > >Federal officials are seeking help from agencies and private >contractors that might be able to supply heavy cranes and other >equipment. > > The levees, which provide a tenuous barrier between the city and the >waters that surround most of it, have long had weak spots and were >not designed to withstand the full force of a storm like Hurricane >Katrina. > >The other failure occurred along the Industrial Canal, an 80-year-old >channel that had been identified as a weak spot in computer >simulations of storm surges from hypothetical hurricanes. > >S. Jeffress Williams, a United States Geological Survey scientist >with long experience in Louisiana, said repairing the levees would >require "a large volume of as dense, as heavy material as you can >get, applied quickly." > > "Where you get the material and how you get the equipment up there >is going to be a real problem," he went on. "If you don't keep it >going, it is just going to erode away. You have to have a persistent >and constant feed until it is done." > >Dr. Penland, the director of the Pontchartrain Institute for >Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said it was >impossible to say how long it would take to repair the levees and >pump the city dry. > >New Orleans has 22 pumping stations that need to work nearly >continuously to discharge normal storm runoff and seepage. But they >are notoriously fickle. Efforts to add backup power generators to >keep them all running during blackouts have been delayed by a lack of >federal money. > > "Pumping the water out - that's a lot of water," Dr. Penland said. >"When the pumping systems are in good shape, it can rain an inch an >hour for about four to six hours and the pumps can keep pace. More >than that, the city floods." > >Next Article in National (11 of 18) > > >_______________________________________________ >assam mailing list >[email protected] >http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
