A FLOOD OF ALLEGATIONS

Bhadresh Patel, who grows bananas on his 20-acre farm, would routinely keep an eye on the Narmada’s levels near Ankleshwar during monsoon. It was no different on September 17.

- Jumana Shah

The day remained dry and the last ‘message’ doing the rounds was that the Sardar Sarovar Dam, nearly 100 km away, would not release any more water that evening. It was as late as 10.30 pm when that changed suddenly: word arrived, via the first official communication, that water would be released from the dam.

Patel knew what to do, and he had to do it quick before relocating to higher ground. “I heaved the fridge onto the dining table, covered the car’s exhaust with polythene, placed the sofa on the settee. That was all I had time for. Water gushed in and we had to flee,” he says. By 11.15 pm, Patel’s home was submerged under 5-6 feet of water.

Floods are not unusual in Ankleshwar-Bharuch, the two towns that flank the Narmada close to the Sardar Sarovar Dam, but this one was deemed the worst in 50 years. It was devastating: his standing crop was entirely washed out, leaving Patel to stare at a potential loss of Rs 20 lakh. The collective damage in the five districts of central Gujarat, mainly Bharuch and Vadodara, is estimated to be around Rs 5,000 crore. “Usually, we get a lead time of 10-12 hours to prepare; this time, we were alerted 45 minutes before,” Patel says.

That morning, chief minister Bhupendra Patel had perfor med a ‘Narmada jal na vadhamna’ (a ritual welcome of Narmada waters) at the dam site to mark the 73rd bir th day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At that point, the dam released 1.9 million cusecs of water. That’s what reached Ankleshwar, about 80-odd km downstream, flooding dozens of villa ges, and inundating homes, schools and hospitals for two days.