Over 370,000 impacted by floods in Assam, situation worsens

Flood situation in the state is grim

With one more death, the floods in Assam have taken a total of three lives till now, the flood situation in the state has deteriorated. The number of affected have reached to 3.7 lakh ( 370,000) albeit it had come down to 2. 1 lakh on Friday. The rivers continue to flow above the danger mark, villages remain inundated and a total of 16 districts have been hit by the first wave of floods in the state.

According to the flood bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) issued Saturday evening, over 1.5 lakh people were newly affected by flood across the state in the past 24 hours.

The heavy rains last evening has deteriorated the situation, particularly in the lower districts of Barpeta, Goalpara and Kamrup The incessant rains, with the onset of the monsoon last week, in Assam has brought with itself floods, devastation and damage. At least 702 villages are marooned, roads and bridges badly damaged and rivers, including the Brahmaputra, are overflowing.

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The other affected districts are Barpeta, Sonitpur, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia, Darrang, Nalbari, Goalpara, Jorhat, Kamrup Metropolitan, Baksa, Dibrugarh, Kamrup, Nagaon and Bongaigaon, ASDMA said in its daily flood report.

The report added that Brahmaputra river is still flowing above the danger mark at at Nematighat in Jorhat and Dhubri town in Dhubri district.

With over a lakh people reeling under the floodwaters in the Barpeta district and around 247 villages submerged in the district alone, it is the worst hit, followed by Goalpara where around 68,000 people are affected.

The number of relief camps have also increased to 11. Nearly 1,780 people are taking shelter in the relief camps in Goalpara, Tinsukia and Sonitpur.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, in a video conference with the Deputy Commissioners on Saturday, instructed them to ensure that the flood-affected villagers were provided shelter, food, water and medicines. He further asked the authorities to arrange boats in the worst-affected districts and take the help of the National Disaster Response Force.

He had also reviewed the situation on Friday and directed vulnerability assessment of embankments on a war-footing. Gogoi also asked Chief Secretary V K Pipersenia to make adequate arrangements for food, medicine and drinking water for the affected people.

A considerable section of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park in the Tinsukia district has also been submerged by the rising levels of the Brahmaputra.

Further, the floodwaters which had entered the Kaziranga National Park earlier, forcing animals to move to drier and safer areas have now also started entering the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary.

The overflowing rivers have led to hundreds of villages been inundated and left tens of thousands of villagers stranded. Large amounts of crop has been damaged since crop fields have also been submerged under floodwaters.

As per latest records, more than 11,000 hectares of cropland are submerged and around 42 roads, bridges and culverts have been damaged in the floods. Flood-control embankments were reported to be breached at at least 14 places across the state.

The situation, however, is unlikely to improve in at least the next two days since the Indian Meteorological Department has forecasted heavy rainfall in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.