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The long-awaited Kosi-Mechi river interlinking project in Bihar is closer to becoming a reality, with the Union Budget 2024-25 allocating a substantial Rs 11,500 crore for flood control and irrigation projects across multiple states. This includes the much-desired Bihar project, a demand that the state government has been pressing for over a decade and a half.
The river interlinking project was planned to tackle annual floods, often caused by excess water discharged from Nepal. It is anticipated to bring significant relief to the flood-prone regions of Bihar and enhance irrigation facilities. However, concerns have been raised by river and flood experts regarding the project’s viability and its potential benefits.
The state government is optimistic about the project’s potential, claiming it will address flooding issues in Kosi and Seemanchal regions and provide irrigation to vast tracts of land.
“Funding for the project has been pending for years; the budget allocation will ensure the work starts and the project is completed,” said an official of the state’s water resources department (WRD).
Bihar, which shares its northern border with neighbouring Nepal, experiences floods during the monsoon as several Himalayan rivers, including the Kosi and Mahanananda, run south. Heavy rainfall in the catchment areas causes the water levels to rise and overflow, inundating large parts of nearly a dozen districts. The annual floods affect millions in the state, damaging properties, crops and causing loss of life.
Officials recalled that last year, a bench of the Patna High Court, in a landmark verdict, stated that once the issue of funding was resolved, the interlinking of the Kosi and Mechi rivers should be carried out in a timely and expeditious manner.
This is the second river linking project in the country after the Ken-Betwa scheme in Madhya Pradesh, which received green clearance from the central government in 2019.
With an estimated cost of Rs 4,900 crore, this project aims to connect the Kosi river, known as ‘the sorrow of Bihar’, and divert its surplus water to the Mechi, a tributary of the Mahananda river. A new 76.2 km long canal will be constructed to link the Kosi to the Mechi. WRD officials said the project would resolve the issue of floods in Supaul, Saharsa, Kishanganj, Purnia, and Araria districts, which were worst hit in the devastating 2008 Kosi floods. Besides, this river linkage will help irrigate 214,000 hectares (ha) of land.
A day after the budget allocation for the Kosi-Mechi river linking project, Dinesh Kumar Mishra, a flood expert and authority on the river network in Bihar, stated that linking a larger flow river with a low or less flow river like the Kosi-Mechi river linking project is not viable.
“A few years ago, a water expert narrated a small story to me to explain the practical aspect of river linking outcomes. It is like a groom with high blood pressure marrying a bride with low blood pressure, hoping it will solve his health issue, but nothing such happens. This river interlinking is more or less the same,” he said.
Mishra, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, known for studying major rivers causing ravaging floods in the Kosi-Seemanchal-Mithila region of Bihar, said that if top government agencies have cleared the project, they must have done so based on a scientific approach and technical justification. Authorities must complete the project, but what is written in the project report should be implemented on the ground. There should be no blame game after the project's completion if it fails to solve floods and irrigation issues, as huge public money is being spent on it.
“What is promised to the people should be fulfilled; if that does not happen in the future, somebody should be accountable,” the expert added.
Mahendra Yadav, an activist working with flood victims in the Kosi region, said the river linkage will not be a solution for flooding inside and outside the Kosi embankment. “There is no explanation for how the interlinkage will stop flooding. Its irrigation capabilities are questionable too. This is nothing more than a large-scale project to loot people's money by a network of powerful contractors and politicians,” said Yadav, founder and convenor of the local people's organisation Koshi Nav Nirman Manch.
Bihar is the state most affected by floods, accounting for close to 17.2 per cent of the total flood-prone areas in the country. Of the total 9.41 million ha, 6.88 million ha — 76 per cent of north Bihar and 73 per cent of south Bihar — is flood-prone. Currently, 28 of 38 districts in the state are flood-prone, according to the state water resources department.