Living with the water curse Kiran DeepTribune News Service (The Tribune- 28 July 2010)

Yamunanagar (Dadupur), July 28The prestigious Dadupur Nalvi canal scheme which had been planned to benefit 225 villages in the three districts of Yamunanagar, Ambala and Kurukshetra by providing them with irrigation waters and also recharging the groundwater has proved destructive to these villages.
The bridge over the Dadupur-Nalvi canal constructed at a cost of Rs 30 lakh a year ago has collapsed while a large portion of the canal as also the road running parrellel to it have been washed away in overflowing waters near Bhagwanpur village.
Over a dozen villages have been submerged due to a breach in the Dadupur-Nalvi canal and 30 cut off with the bridge over the canal having collapsed.
The irrigation department blames the unexpected high flow of water into the canal triggered by breaches in the two seasonal rivulets of Som and Pathrala for the damage to the canal as well as the bridge.
Superintendent Engineer, Irrigation, Balbir Singh, told The Tribune that the canal with a capacity for 590 cusecs received 4,000 cusecs of water that caused the damage.
The first phase of the Dadupur Nalvi canal scheme was inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on August 1. The canal, with a capacity of 590 cusecs, is meant to get water supply from the Dadupur headworks.
The surplus Yamuna water is planned to be diverted from these headworks into the canal during the kharif season for the benefit of farmers.
However, it seems that while planning the prestigious scheme, the irrigation department did not take into account the potential threat to villagers in case of a breach in any of the seasonal rivulets. Doubts are now also being expressed over the material used to build the bridge.
The nearby villagers of Dadupur, Bhagwanpur, Kishanpur Majra, Khadri and Fatehgarh had time and again complained about the possibility of their agricultural land being submerged in waters in the eventuality of a breach.
However the irrigation department disregarded their apprehension which finally resulted in a major disaster.
Meanwhile, nine villages of the Mustafabad block in Jagadhri subdivision were also submerged in the overflowing waters of the Chetang seasonal rivulet here today.
The rise in the water of the rivulet is attributed to heavy rainfall in the catchments areas of Himachal Pardesh. Link roads and crops in these villages are under water.