Indian dams blamed for fuelling floods

Over four million people have been left homeless across western, central and southern parts of the country.

The flooding has been caused by the annual June-September monsoon rains -- key for the country's agriculture-driven economy -- but were made worse after authorities opened gates of dams and reservoirs brimming with water, activists say.

"The water levels in dams were actually too high prior to the monsoons so, when the rains came, vast amounts of water were suddenly released," said Himanshu Thakker of the New Delhi-based South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.

"If you look at the evidence before us, it is clear that the dam authorities are guilty of criminal negligence."

Hundreds of villages and some towns in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat have been submerged, leaving thousands of people marooned, some on rooftops, others perched in trees without food or water.

Petroleum, gas and power plants have also been flooded and crops over a huge swathe of agricultural land devastated.

Thakker said 13 dams in south, west and central India were between 20 percent and 77 percent full prior to the rains, when their capacity levels should have been between five and 10 percent.

The monsoon downpours had left authorities no option but to open the dam gates, to avoid the far greater devastation if dam walls had burst.

But the crisis might have been alleviated by better planning and management of the reservoirs, critics say.

In Maharashtra, as many as 10 dams released water in the space of just 24 hours, the Hindu newspaper reported, bringing "into question the efficacy of dams which are built ostensibly to control floods and alleviate drought."

In neighbouring Gujarat, officials said they had miscalculated the volume of water in the Ukai dam, which is 60km south of the diamond and textile centre of Surat, a city of 3 million people.

The sudden release of water from the dam this week caused flood waters to submerge around 80 percent of Surat, cutting power and leaving thousands homeless.