How to dam natures fury?
By N. Ramdas BHUBANESWAR, JULY 20. The recent devastating floods, where over 15 lakh cusecs of water from the Mahanadi river flowed into Orissa’s commercial capital of Cuttack and the entire Mahanadi delta spread over six coastal districts, have once again brought to the fore the question – how long can successive Governments fight nature’s fury? A major flood in the Mahanadi is always a threat to Cuttack. This year’s flood, where 15 lakh cusecs of water are estimated to have passed through, is the fourth occurrence of such intensity since the Hirakud dam was built; the first three were in 1961, 1982 and 1994. After completion of the Hirakud dam in 1958, a major flood struck in 1961. The then Congress Government headed by the late Biju Patnaik immediately decided to go in for the second phase of the Unified Basinwide Development of the Mahanadi. The project, initiated in 1945 by the late A. N. Khosla, Chairman of the Central Waters, Irrigation and Navigation Commission (now Central Wat
