Hummingbird News Desk
BURDWAN, 1 OCT: Incessant rain that caused the entire seven upper-dam reservoirs of five rivers in Bengal-Jharkhand border to reach the maximum flood level, has inundated to uncountable habitats in the lower catchment areas of the key rivers.
In many blocks in the lower catchments in Burdwan East, Howrah, Hooghly, Bankura, the disaster management teams and rescue experts of the state Civil Defence have been deployed, besides, evacuation from several villages in Burdwan East and Bankura have already been kicked off after the discharge rate of Durgapur Barrage was escalated to 2.21 Lakh Cusecs at 5 pm today.
The water level of Massanjore reservoir of Mayurakshi river recorded 386 feet against Maximum Flood Level of 398 feet. The upper dams of the Damodar at Tenughat, Maithon and Panchet have recorded 850 feet, 480 feet & 261 feet against their MFLs of 864 ft, 495 ft & 435 ft respectively.
The Damodar Valley Corporation officials said: “The outflows in acre-feet from the upper dams in past 24 hours were 7435, 23430 & 40049 acre-feet respectively, which are likely to increase in next 24 hours.”
The incessant rainfall recorded in the upper catchment districts of the Damodar have added to the dam discharge before hitting the Durgapur Barrage lockgates. Gangajalghanti Saltora in Bankura recorded 371 mm & 297 mm precipitation, besides, 345 mm in Asansol and 220 mm in Durgapur. “We were compelled by the circumstances to increase discharge beyond 2.21 Lakh Cusecs in the evening,” said Gautam Banerjee, Assistant Engineer with the Damodar Headworks today.
“We have geared up relief and rescue teams as our blocks like Raina-1 and 2, Khandaghosh, Jamalpur, Galsi-1 and 2 are most vulnerable to Damodar inundation,” said Priyanka Singla, DM, Burdwan East.
She added: “In blocks like Ketugram-1,2, Mongalkote the Ajoy is posing threat especially after the discharge crossed 1.40 Lakh Cusecs at 2 pm.”
The reservoir level of Hinglow dam of the Ajoy was at 324 feet at 2 pm against MFL of 324 ft and the water level of Chandil dam on the Subarnarekha near Jamshedpur was at 593 ft against MFL of 630 ft. This river poses threat to Purulia and Jhargram districts as the outflow crossed 22391 acre-feet at 2 pm today. The key rivers altogether received 2.08 Lakh acre-feet of water due to the downpour and released 1.36 Lakh acre-feet in past 24 hours, the state Irrigation department officials said.
Tags: #FloodInBengal #IncessantRains #UpperCatchment #LowerCatchment
