GUWAHATI:
The flood situation in Assam further worsened as four more people met the watery grave on may 21 taking the toll to 18, according to an official bulletin of Assam State Disaster management authority (ASDMA).
A total of 8,39,691 people of 3,246 villages have been affected by floods, including six districts affected by landslides.
The Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger level at Neamatighat (Jorhat), Kopili at Dharamtul (Nagaon), and Disang is flowing above the danger level at Nanglamuraghat (Sivasagar) till the filing this report.
Kopili is also flowing above the highest flood level at Kampur (Nagaon district).
A districts affected in the first wave of the floods include Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Cachar, Charaideo, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Dima-Hasao, Goalpara, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Hojai, Jorhat, Kamrup, Kamrup (M), West Karbi Anglong, Karimganj, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, South Salmara, Tinsukia and Udalguri.
Nagaon is the worst affected with 3,39,427 of 226 villages under three revenue circles – Kampur, Raha and Nagaon being affected followed by the Cachar district with 1,77,954 people of 447 villages under five revenue circles – Katigorah, Silchar, Udharbond, Lakhipur and Sonai revenue circles being affected in the first wave.
The fllods have also affected 100,732.43 hectares of crop areas, the ASDMA said.
Meanwhile, the SDRF, NDRF and other volunteers have rescued 24,749 stranded persons, and 499 relief camps and 519 relief distribution centres have been set up in the affected areas. A total of 92,124 inmates are staying in these relief camps.
In view of the current flood and landslide situation in the state, chief secretary Jishnu Barua reviewed the flood preparedness of all the stakeholders along with the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) and further expedited the response and recovery services by the deployment of additional resources and support system to the severely affected districts.
In the meeting, Public Health Engineering Department has been asked to make arrangements to supply sufficient water to over 4,000 pre-identified relief camps in the state.
The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI has also assured to restore the National Highway from Jatinga to Harangajao in the Dima Hasao district within 1 week.
ASDMA deployed nodal officers along with the satellite phones for sharing of information from the disaster site to test the emergency communication.
Hojai district has released an additional budget of Rs 3 crore for providing Gratuitous Relief to flood-affected people.
Efforts for rapid damage assessment have been escalated to have a holistic idea of losses to undertake an informed recovery programme.
Meanwhile, airdropping of food materials has been stopped in the Dima Hasao district as the movement of light passenger and commercial vehicles resumed on Friday.