Every monsoon used to be a season of dread for dozens of villages sitting along the Ghaghara river in the Mahsi tehsil of Bahraich district. As floodwaters rose year after year, the river's current would turn violent, and its erosion, locally called kattan, would reach its peak, sweeping away pucca and kaccha houses along with the farmland that many villagers depend on for their livelihood. Since last year, though, that annual cycle of destruction has slowed considerably, and the credit goes to a modern technique brought in by the irrigation department, known as the geotube.
How Tikuri village experienced the change
Sanjay Kumar Trivedi, the pradhan of Tikuri village in the Mahsi area, explained that this particular geotube installation was carried out on the instructions of the Yogi government, and crucially, it was put in place before the flood had even arrived the last time around. The tubes themselves are massive, each stretching 50 metres in length, and they were laid one after another in a continuous line along the riverbank. That arrangement breaks the force of the river's fast-flowing water before it can reach the bank, and it has already brought relief to several villages in the area. Trivedi noted that the erosion had slowed down considerably after the tubes were installed last year, and this time too, the river's attempts to cut into the bank appear to be failing completely.
The engineering behind the tube's strength
What makes this geotube particularly effective is the material it is built from: special threads designed to resist both cutting and rotting. The river's powerful waves and the heavy pressure of its current are simply not strong enough to tear through these threads. Just as importantly, the material does not decay quickly even though it stays submerged in water continuously, month after month. That combination of toughness and durability is what turns the geotube into a long-term, sustainable answer to erosion, rather than a quick fix that needs to be redone every season.
Relief for families who once feared losing everything
For years, every flood season carried the risk of losing a house, a field, or a piece of land that a family had spent generations building or farming. With that fear now easing, residents of the riverside areas say they finally feel secure. The success of this scheme, backed by prompt decisions from the administration and the state government, has brought genuine relief to people living in the flood-affected parts of Mahsi tehsil.
The threat has not disappeared everywhere
Even with this progress, erosion continues to trouble several villages in the Nanpara, Mahsi and Kaisarganj tehsils of Bahraich. The administration says it is continuing to take steps to control the damage in these areas, but officials also acknowledge that there are still many stretches along the riverbank where geotubes have not yet been installed and are urgently needed.
