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2014 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

4. Governmentality of River Embankment

Author : Ravi Baghel

Published in: River Control in India

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Flood control embankments on the Kosi river in Bihar, India, are taken up as an example of governmental rationality inherent in the project of river control. The material outcomes of the application of normative ideals and expert discourses to this specific river are examined using government documents and field research. The promise of flood control is seen to have mostly been a failure which has put a large population at a higher risk of flooding, with negative socio-economic outcomes for the entire region. The pursuit of this flawed strategy of flood control in spite of its failure is identified to be an outcome of governmental rationality.

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previous chapter Genealogy of the Hydraulic Mission
next chapter Subjectivity in Expert Advocacy
Footnotes
1
Most official evaluations take “flood prone” to mean affected by flood at least once in the study period. Though the increase in the flood-prone area has sometimes been attributed to better measurement methods, the steady increase suggests that there are newer areas being flooded. Additionally, in these statistics, “floods” is only taken to mean cases where a river overflows its banks and does not include situations where a large amount of water collects due to heavy rainfall combined with lack of drainage, as happened for instance in the 2005 Mumbai floods.
 
2
This is only the length of embankments within the state of Bihar; they also extend upstream in Nepal.
 
3
Water Resources Department, Government of Bihar
 
4
See Chap.​ 5 for more information on these two engineers.
 
5
The height of Bhakra eventually settled at 225 m, but in the planning stage, it fluctuated considerably; see Sect.​ 2.​2.​1.​
 
6
This is calculated as the percentage of people above the age of 7 years who are able to read and write in at least one language. The average literacy rate and the gender gap in literacy rates are widely used indicators of development and quality of life. These are additionally significant because they indicate the availability of public services like education.
 
7
The village is located under the Chandrayan panchayat, Nauhatta block, Saharsa district, Bihar, India.
 
8
Indian parliament, Lok Sabha, unstarred question no. 4803 by Dr. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, “Waterlogging in Bihar” answered on 08.12.2010.
 
9
1 lakh, also written as lac, equals 100,000; 1 lakh hectare = 0.1 mha. The total area of Bihar state is 9.89 mha.
 
10
See Molle (2006, Note 17) for a detailed discussion of similar statements made by leaders across the world, dating as far back as the twelfth century. A speculative explanation for this phenomenon is that the level of abstraction required by the state’s attempts to make the landscape legible and governable (Linton 2008, 2010; Scott 1998) means that the only vision available to the leaders is that of water moving waste to the sea. On the other hand, for someone interacting with it as part of their everyday lifeworld, the river is often deeply implicated in their livelihoods and everyday social and cultural practices, which makes it nearly impossible for them to conceive of it as merely water flowing to the sea.
 
11
This very same quote and the entire report were used as a base for deciding a subsequent case on the Narmada project in the SCI (Supreme Court of India 2005).
 
12
Amongst others, by the prominent geographer Gilbert White, a leading authority on hazards research, especially that related to floods
 
13
The Rijkswaterstaat is a Dutch institution founded in 1798 that is responsible for public works and water management, including flood protection and prevention. It is part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, which was formerly the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
 
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Metadata
Title
Governmentality of River Embankment
Author
Ravi Baghel
Copyright Year
2014
Book
River Control in India

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04431-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-04432-3

Copyright Year: 2014

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04432-3_4