Srinagar, Sept. 4 -- Kashmir's Jhelum has always been a storyteller. It flows through Srinagar with an ancient patience, teaching lessons that we have struggled to hear.

In 2014, it spoke in a voice of fury. Floodwaters rose, canals burst, orchards vanished, bridges collapsed, and families clung to rooftops as the valley turned into a sea of despair.

The flood was a mirror, showing how far humans had strayed from the rhythms of this fragile paradise. Yet, a decade later, the warnings remain unheeded.

Rivers are not cruel. They respond to what we do, or fail to do.

Every canal filled, wetland encroached, or house built on a floodplain is an invitation to disaster. In Pulwama, recent floods swallowed orchards that had thrived for genera...