Assam, September 14: The flood situation in Assam on Tuesday remained critical with Brahmaputra crossing the danger level at several places and inundating vast tracts of land in several districts following continuous heavy rainfall.
The Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger mark at Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Morigaon, Dhubri districts and in Guwahati.More than 500 villages have been badly affected by the floods so far in 10 districts.
Gushing floodwaters had breached at least four vital mud embankments in the state.South Asia’s largest river island of Majuli in Jorhat district has also been hit by the floods with a breach in a mud embankment reported on Monday night, leaving thousands of people stranded on raised platforms.Authorities have sounded maximum alert and have already kept disaster management teams on standby.
The river was flowing six cm above the danger mark in Guwahati for the first time this year causing flood concerns in the capital city,
Over 50 villages in Dhemaji district have also come under water.
Measures are being taken to plug the breaches in the mud embankments.
A government spokesperson said floods have spread to 10 districts with the worst hit being Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Golaghat and Barpeta. Two people drowned earlier this week in separate incidents while trying to escape the fury of floods in eastern Assam.
“More than 500 villages have been badly affected by the floods so far in 10 districts,” the official said. An estimated 100,000 people are now displaced in Lakhimpur district alone, about 400 km east of Assam’s main city Guwahati.
“Most of the flood-hit people are now taking shelter in raised platforms, on railway tracks, and also in government schools and offices so far untouched by the floods,” a district official said.
A Central Water Commission bulletin said the Brahmaputra and its tributaries were flowing above the danger mark in at least eight places.
The 2,906-km-long Brahmaputra is one of Asia’s largest rivers and traverses its first stretch of 1,625 km in China’s Tibet region, the next 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through neighbouring Bangladesh before flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
—Agencies