Guwahati: The flood situation in Assam worsened on Wednesday.
incessant rain This has made matters worse, with five more people losing their lives in the deluge.
The number of affected people rose to 24.92 lakh, PTI quoted officials as saying, while Silchar town in Cachar district has been flooded for the past 10 days.
The Meteorological Department has issued ‘Red Alert’ in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Baksa districts and ‘Orange Alert’ in Dhubri, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Udalguri, Vishwanath, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Dibrugarh.
The Met Office has issued an ‘Orange Alert’ for South Salmara, Kokrajhar, Chirang and Baksa districts till Thursday.
A bulletin issued by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said five fresh deaths were reported due to floods and landslides in Assam this year, while three more were reported missing.
The Brahmaputra, Beki, Kopili, Barak and Kushiyara rivers were flowing above the danger mark at some places, though most of the remaining rivers were showing a decreasing trend.
Most of the areas of Silchar are still inundated with water and the situation remains grim as residents are facing shortage of food, drinking water and medicines.
The city is submerged for the last 10 days due to the breach of the dam at Bethkundi. Deputy Commissioner Kirti Jalli said that the repair work is going on.
He said that priority is being given to providing clean drinking water and food to the affected people, while medical camps are being organized by the Health Department to ensure prevention of water borne diseases.
A team from the National Health Mission, Assam, led by its mission director MS Lakshmi Priya, is camping in Silchar to ensure proper medical facilities to the affected people.
Medical personnel have been deployed in 28 municipal wards of the city, while health camps have been organized at various relief centres, where ORS packets have been provided to prisoners for prevention of diarrhoea.
Jalli said water sachets and water sanitizing tablets are being distributed among the affected people, while temporary toilets have been built in some camps.
He said officials were inspecting the markets to ensure that shopkeepers do not charge exorbitant rates from customers.
He said that an online form has been released for the organizations willing to help through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the devastating floods.
A total of 2,389 villages have been affected under 72 revenue circles across the state, while 1,76,201 people have taken shelter in 555 relief camps.
155 roads and five bridges have been damaged by the flood waters while seven embankments have been broken. A total of 64 houses have been completely damaged and 5,693 partially damaged by the floods.
More than 85,673.62 hectares of land is still submerged, while 4,304 animals have been washed away.
Large-scale erosion is reported from Chirang, Dibrugarh, Hailakandi, Kokrajhar, Morigaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Tamulpur and Udalguri districts, the bulletin said.
Two landslides in Karimganj and Lakhimpur districts and urban floods in Cachar and Morigaon continued.
with agency input
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