Table of Contents
Assam has continued to suffer from extreme amounts of rain over the past few days. The rains have made the water levels in the local rivers rise up to critical levels, causing major discomfort to about 20 of Assam’s 31 districts and neighbouring areas too. Over 1 lakh people have been affected already.
Despite several relief measures taken by the administration, the situation remains dire. There is a risk of major areas flooding in both rural and urban regions of Assam. Emergency services have begun evacuating thousands of people from the affected areas.
Rivers Overflow
Assam is a state blessed with multiple rivers running through the state or nearby. However, these rivers now run the risk of overflowing due to consistent and extreme monsoons in Assam. Some of the rivers already flowing over danger level marks include River Beki, River Pagladiya and River Puthimari.
The situation has been similarly grave in the neighbouring states of Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. These conditions have also been affecting the neighbouring country of Bhutan, which shares borders with the state of Assam.
The worst affected rural areas are Bajali, Chirang, Dhubri, Golaghat, Sonitpur, and many more, while urban districts of Darrang, Nalbari, and Kamrup (which is a metropolitan district) among others have taken the worst hits.
Main roads and crossings have become inaccessible following heavy downpours, leading to difficulties.
Unsurprisingly, these floods have led to soil erosions on a massive scale. Affected areas include Nalbari, Morigaon, Kamrup, Golaghat and 7 other districts. Furthermore, some places have even reported landslides, while others have suffered from infrastructure damage.
Relief efforts
According to a news source, the administration’s relief efforts include 14 camps and 17 distribution centres. The number of people taking shelter through these efforts, about 2000, is drastically different from the figure of the affected.
Emergency services along with the national and state-level disaster response forces have managed to evacuate 1280 people from the flooded areas on Wednesday alone.
Alongside the crisis for human safety, over 1 lakh domesticated animals and poultry have also been affected by the flood.
You can donate to Assam disaster relief funds here.
Weather Forecasts
Both the Indian Meteorological Department and the government of Bhutan have declared that there is heavy rainfall to be expected in the days to come. This will cause a rise in water levels of the major river Brahmaputra and its many tributaries.
Due to the excess rainfall, Bhutan has been forced to release water from the Kurichhu Dam, built on the river of the same name. This has further led to aggravated situations in the western part of Assam.
While the Meteorological Department had issued a red alert on Tuesday, it issued an orange alert on Wednesday and a yellow alert further on Thursday. The Red alert is considered the most alarming, while the subsequent two alerts decline in the cause for alarm but continue to reason for vigilance. The flooding situation was said to be only marginally worsened from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The state of Assam has been witnessing floods every year during the monsoon season. There was a crisis of flooding which hit the area last year too, claiming over 190 lives.
Fortunately, there haven’t been any reports of deaths caused by floods this year so far. However, the state continues to suffer in a state of emergency.
