Srinagar, Oct. 2 -- By Sheikh Aneaus

Ask anyone in Srinagar about September 2014 and the answer comes with coordinates: the rooftop, the dead phone, the lane that became part of some other city.

Those memories return whenever the Jhelum rises, and a simpler question follows them far less often: When the river has taken all it can hold, where is the rest of the water supposed to go?

The usual answers involve rainfall, river levels, embankments and drainage, and the geography gives a wider one.

Mountains ring the valley, and snow and glacier melt tumble down through numerous tributaries onto a flat floor, where the Jhelum makes its slow way toward Wular Lake. A river that drops from steep catchments onto a gentle plain loses speed, so a...