Flooding eases in some parts of Assam but death toll rises to 118
Utpal Parashar and Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha
GUWAHATI/SILCHAR: Flooding and water-logging in parts of Assam eased marginally with relatively lower precipitation across the affected areas of the state on Friday, but 10 fresh deaths, including those of 4 children, were reported as the region continued to deal with a massive humanitarian crisis.
According to a bulletin issued by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), over 3.3 million people in 28 of the state’s 35 districts still remained affected by floods. The toll in the state due to heavy rainfall flooding since April has now risen to 118.
Officials at the Guwahati office of India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that there will be light to moderate rainfall in all states in the North-east region over the next few days, and heavy rainfall in isolated places in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Assam till June 28. “However, this will be the regular rainfall witnessed in the region during monsoon,” said Sunit Das, senior scientist at Imd-guwahati.
Assam’s second-biggest town, Silchar, remained waterlogged on Friday, leaving residents stranded for the fifth consecutive day.
Some areas were so badly affected that were submerged under 5-8 feet of water even though there was no fresh rain in the city.
The flooding in Silchar reached unprecedented levels because a part of the Barak river’s embankment was damaged by locals in
Bethukandi area on Sunday night, according to the officials of Cachar district administration.
“Our main focus in the coming few days would be the three districts of Barak valley -- Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi -- in southern Assam,” said GD Tripathi, CEO of Assam State Disaster Management Authority.
Journalist Sivashis Bhattacharjee, who lives in the Shyamananda Ashram Road area in Silchar, has been taking shelter on the rooftop of his house with his 15-month-old girl, ailing mother, and wife. On Friday morning, he swam more than a kilometre to get food for his child.
“We didn’t get enough time to leave the area as water level increased all of a sudden. We don’t know when will the situation improve,” he said.
Eighteen-year-old Suman Das, from the Tapovan Nagar area of Silchar, has sent his family to a relief camp at Women’s College. The teenager has made a small boat from thermocol, and has been using it to ferry stranded people.
“I have to arrange food for family because they are not getting food in relief camp regularly. I am earning around Rs 500 every day by ferrying people...,” he said.
According to IMD officials, the present spate of heavy rainfall, which affected most areas of northeast except Nagaland, started on June 13.
For the seven days from June 16 to June 22--Meghalaya recorded 203% increase in rainfall than normal, Assam recorded 170% excess, Tripura 141%, Arunachal Pradesh 65%, Mizoram 64% and Manipur 20% excess.