Assam flood situation deteriorates, five dead, 24.92 lakh affected    

       Assam’s flood situation deteriorated on Tuesday with five more people losing their lives and a population of 24.92 lakh affected  while most parts of severely affected Cachar district’s Silchar town remained submerged for over a week, officials said.

     The death toll due to flood and landslides this year has increased to 139 with five more deaths reported during and these include three from Cachar and one each from Morigaon and Dhubri.

      Three persons were reported missing with two in Cachar and one in Chirang district, according to the bulletin. of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).

      The total population affected during the day has increased to 24.92 lakh in 28 districts as against the previous day’s 21.52 lakh in 22 districts 

       The Brahmaputra at some places, Beki, Kopili, Barak and Kushiyara were flowing above the danger level though most other rivers were maintaining a receding trend.

        Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday visited severely affected districts of Bajali and Barpeta and inspected a breached embankment, interacted with affected people and reviewed the prevailing flood situation in the two districts.

      In Bajali, he inspected a breached embankment at Kuruwa in Patacharkuchi, visited two flood relief camps, and inspected the flood situation at Charalpara Nayapara at Bhabanipur to take note of the hardships of the people.

        He assured the affected people of all necessary assistance for reconstruction of damaged houses and asked the authorities to prepare a list of the affected people.

       An amount of Rs nine crore has been sanctioned for strengthening the embankment of Pahumara river and construction of a road on it.

       In the worst-hit Barpeta district, he visited three relief camps to review the ongoing flood-relief measures  and assured that relief will be provided to all  affected people while steps will be taken for dredging Harijan river to mitigate the flood problem in the area, Sarma said.

        In Silchar, tourism minister Jayanta Malla Barua reviewed the flood relief and rescue operations while a team of the National Health Mission, Assam, led by its Mission Director Dr M S Lakshmi Priya also visited the severely affected town to ensure proper medical facilities and medicines are provided to the affected people.

      Medical officers, health officials, para medical staff have been deployed in the 28 municipal wards of the town and health camps have been organised in the different relief centres where the inmates have been provided with ORS packets for prevention of diarrhoea and were also advised to drink clean water to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases, according to a release issued by the NHM, Assam

       Altogether, 7212 persons were screened during the day and those found to be very sick were transported to the hospital.

       The health camps will continue till normalcy returns.

       Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said water pouches and water purifying tablets are being distributed among the flood affected people while temporary toilets have been set up in two relief camps for ensuring hygiene for the inmates taking shelter there.

        Meanwhile, continuous work was going on to repair the damaged portion of the dyke at Bethukandi which led to the flooding of the town, Jalli added.

  Meanwhile, 2,389 villages under 72 revenue circles have been affected across the state while 1,76,201 inmates have taken shelter in 555 relief camps, according to the bulletin.
          Relief materials were distributed from 72 delivery points among flood-hit people who have not taken shelters in the relief camps.
          Flood waters have damaged 155 roads and five bridges while seven embankments were breached, five in Hailakandi and two in Bishwanath,  according to the bulletin.  
           According to the bulletin, 64 houses were fully damaged while 5693  have been partially damaged due to the floods, according to the bulletin..
           A crop area of 85,673.62 hectares is still inundated while 4304 animals were washed away.
          Large scale erosion was also reported from Chirang, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Kokrajhar, Morigaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Tamulpur
and Udalguri, the Bulletin stated.  
          Two landslides were reported from Karimganj and Lakhimpur districts but there was no casualty while urban flooding continued in Cachar and Morigaon.