A broken down school in Givha, Saharsa district, Bihar, destroyed in the floods after the Kusaha breached in 2008

This article voices the agitation of the people of Saharsa District in Bihar for building an embankment on the Kosi River, which destroyed many people and property in the 2008 flood.

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29 Mar 2010, 6:48 am

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When the foundation stone for the Kosi embankment was laid on January 14, 1955, near Nirmali in Saharsa district in Bihar, euphoric people shouted, Aadhi roti khayenge, Kosi bandh banayenge (we will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the embankment), writes the prolific engineer and activist Dinesh Mishra in his book, “ Trapped! Between the Devil and the Deep Waters.” No one really paid any attention to the protests and the fears of the people who would live with these embankments and what would happen to their lives.

A broken down school in Givha, Saharsa district, Bihar, destroyed in the floods after the Kusaha breached in 2008.