Editorial: Start Preparing for the Monsoons

The evening showers which have fallen over parts of Sikkim over the past week should get everyone wondering about what awaits the roads once the nor’westers open up in a few weeks time and when the monsoons arrive a couple of months later. The stability of the hills here has never been very reassuring and have now been noticeably weakened by the 18 September 2011 earthquake and several tremors since. As for the roads, the National Highway is a work-in-progress, scratched, and cracked by a combination of widening and tectonic efforts. The rest of the State has a series of rural roads under various stages of construction. The road to Tsomgo has become even more unreliable and the North Sikkim Highway remains a risky venture to drive on. While it was always advisable for the concerned agencies to reinforce the roads during the dry winter months in preparation for the onslaught of the rains, the havoc caused on the road networks by the earthquake have made this initiative even more necessary. Unfortunately, one does not notice any urgency in shoring up the health of the roads. One hears of the need for more funds, but when one travels, the highways resemble excavations, when they should have been receiving fortification instead. Sources inform that at a recent seminar of the National Disaster Management Agency in New Delhi, BRO officials highlighted the need for satellite images of Sikkim and satellite mapping of the terrain here to prepare better for the oncoming monsoons and to understand better the scale to which the road alignments here had been compromised by the earthquake and what risks waited in ambush above the roads. The concerned agency is reported to have told them that this will take a year. Why it should take a year to provide these is beyond comprehension especially since this is an urgent requirement for an emergency situation. The BRO participant at the seminar is reported to have stated that they were expecting an 18 Sept earthquake-like situation vis a vis the roads in the monsoons and would obviously be able to avert such a scenario if they were provided better information – like a satellite mapping of the state. Since this is not happening any time soon, one awaits to learn of what BRO has lined up as Plan-B. The earthquake is now some months in the past and with most roads reopened, the horror of the weeks after the earthquake is fading. It is perhaps time for a coordination meeting of some sorts for the State to take stock of its infrastructure afresh and augment its preparedness for the wet months ahead.  Collaborative effort, one which includes frequent monitoring and planning to a deadline, is necessary for the State to be in any condition to weather through the monsoons.