Incessant rainfall has led to a further worsening of Assam’s flood situation with 12 people losing their lives and a population of 31.54 lakh affected on Wednesday while most parts of Cachar district’s Silchar town remained submerged for ten days, officials said.
Twelve people lost their lives with eleven due to floods which include two each in Cachar and Chirang along with one each in Barpeta, Biswanath, Darrang, Dhemaji, Golaghat, Kamrup Metro, Lakhimpur and Nagaon, according to the bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
One person died due to a landslide in Noonmati area of Guwahati under Kamrup Metro district on Wednesday.
Landslides have been also reported from Kharguli area of Guwahati and Patharkandi in Karimganj during the day but there was no casualty.
The death toll due to flood and landslides this year has increased to 151.
The number of affected population increased to 31.54 lakh in 26 districts as against the previous day’s 24.92 lakh.
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.
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.
In Silchar, most parts of the town are still waterlogged and the situation was still critical with shortage of food, drinking water and medicines being faced by the affected people.
The town, regarded as the ‘Gateway of the Barak Valley’, is submerged under flood water for the last ten days since the breaching of the dyke at Bethkundi, allegedly by miscreant.
Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli said that continuous work was going on to repair the damaged portion of the dyke.
She said that priority was being given to reach the affected people with clean drinking water and food while medical camps are being organised by the health department in all the 28 municipal wards i to ensure prevention of water-borne diseases.
”Short term public health measures must be adopted by the people to prevent the spread of diseases in the post-flood period”, she said.
Meanwhile, 2,675 villages under 79 revenue circles have been affected across the state while 3,12,085 inmates have taken shelter in 560 relief camps, according to the bulletin.
Relief materials were distributed from 280 delivery points among flood-hit people who have not taken shelters in the relief camps.
Among the worst affected districts are Cachar with a total population of 14,30,994 followed by Barpeta with 5,49,172 and Nagaon with 5,19,374.
Five embankments were breached with four in Bishwanath and one in Lakhimpur while 177 roads and five bridges have been damaged.
According to the bulletin, 548 houses were fully damaged while 1034 have been partially damaged due to the floods.
A crop area of 91349,26 hectares has been inundated while 38 animals were washed away.
Large scale erosion was also reported from Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, South Salmara, Tamulpur and Tinsukia.
Urban flooding was reported from Cachar and Tinsukia, the bulletin added.
