Floods kill 868 people this yr as monsoon chaos continues
NEWDELHI: A very active monsoon from August 11 to 14, which brought widespread rain to northwest and central India, has wiped out the rainfall deficit that prevailed at the end of July and taken overall precipitation so far in the four-month season to excess at 103% of the long-period average (LPA).
Another low-pressure area is likely to form over the Bay of Bengal on August 19, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which says it may trigger more heavy and widespread rains in the two regions.
Heavy rain triggered floods in a number of regions including Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Meghalaya in July; Mumbai, Konkan and Karnataka in the first week of August; and flash floods in parts of Rajasthan on August 15.
Spurts of exceptionally heavy rain have paralysed life like they did this month in Kerala’s Idukki, where a landslide killed at least 55 people. According to a flood situation report dated August 12 by the ministry of home affairs’ disaster management division, 868 people have lost their lives to floods in 11 states, compared with 908 deaths in the same period last year.
“Yes, this year we have seen exceptional rains and several cases of extreme weather events. For example, one town in Jaipur district recorded 25 cm rain only in six hours. A lot of rain was recorded last week alone which helped northwest India largely cover its deficiency. Parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan have recorded extremely heavy rains in the past 24 hours,” said RK Jenamani, senior scientist at the National Weather Forecasting Centre. “August will see excess rains because another low-pressure area is likely to develop over Bay of Bengal around August 19 which will bring very heavy rains to northwest and central India in the coming days. A fresh low-pressure area is likely to also develop around August 23.”.
Three low-pressure areas have already developed over the Bay of Bengal in August. These were the main rain producing systems. No low-pressure area had formed in July and the monsoon trough (line of low pressure) had frequently oscillated towards the Himalayan foothills, bringing extremely heavy rains to northeastern states.
With the improved water levels in the seven lakes that supply water to the city, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on Sunday said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will re-examine the imposition of 20% water cut in Mumbai. Starting August 5, BMC imposed a 20% water cut in the city, owing to the meagre rainfall in the catchment areas. When asked about withdrawing the water cut, Chahal said, “We will certainly re-examine this”. The seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai have a total of 75.96% useful water content as of Sunday morning, up from the 60.17% on Thursday morning.
MUMBAI :