By Manoj Kumar Ojha
Guwahati: After continued heat waves came incessant rain in Assam which resulted in rise in water level of rivers causing flood.
Thousands of people have been affected and animals of National Parks are taking shelter in artificial highlands.
On the other hand, Guwahati Development Department (GDD) minister Ashok Singhal inspected the water pumps and sluice gate of the Bharalu River, a tributary of Brahmaputra River.
He instructed the officials to ensure the sluice gate of Bharalu River functions smoothly.
Taking to tweeter, the minister said “Today inspected the water pumps and sluice gate of Bharalu river and instructed the officials to ensure the sluice gate of Bharalu river functions smoothly to avoid any hindrance to the flow of water from Guwahati city,”.
Meanwhile, the flood situation in Assam’s Lakhimpur remains grim.
As the water levels of many rivers are rising up following incessant rain and a few districts of Assam have been affected in the first spell of flood, the state government is ready to deal with any kind of situation and directed all districts to be alert.
The Assam government is in touch with all agencies including the Indian army, Indian Air Force (IAF), NDRF to tackle the emergency situation.
Talking about the flood preparedness made by the state government, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Assam Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) Gyanendra Dev Tripathi told OurIndia that, the overall situation is building up, not at its peak and it is the start of flood season, but the state government is fully prepared to deal with any kind of situation.
“We are focused on more preparedness starting from January 2023. We have done extensive deliberations and consultations with all the stakeholders, all the responding agencies, all the warning-giving agencies, all the information-providing agencies. We have done thematic discussions and thereafter we have done district preparedness, score card which has shown tremendous improvement over the preparedness that was last year. We have checked the preparedness this year, the districts are much better prepared in comparison to last year. We are fully geared up for dealing with flood situation,” said Gyanendra Dev Tripathi.
“During pre-monsoon, we didn’t receive much rainfall and there was a huge deficit of rainfall. The monsoon was supposed to come from June 5, but it came on June 10 and some of the districts experienced some degree of floods particularly Lakhimpur district because of huge rainfall in neighbouring states as well as in Lakhimpur district and number of people have been affected. The overall situation is building up, not at its peak and it is the start of flood season,”GD Tripathi stated.
He further said that, as part of the preparedness, all the agencies including Indian army, Indian Air Force, NDRF, SDRF, Fire and Emergency Services, Central Water Commission, Indian Meteorological Department, all the warning giving agencies, all are on hold and we have in common alerting protocol system where the alerts from all the agencies are shared, with the geographical location system, so we can target a particular locality and shared the warning with the people of the particular area.
In Tinsukia, the Dibru Saikhowa National Park is witnessing flood situation.
The situation in the urban area including Towns and cities too have been facing problems due to incessant rain as water gathers on road .