Flood waters recede in Assam's Sonitpur district; 21 others still inundated

The flood waters in Assam ebbed from another district on Friday, even as 21 continued to be submerged with one life lost and 10.83 lakh people affected by the deluge, said an official bulletin here.

The flood waters receded from Sonitpur district even as it remained in 21 others, said the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) report.

The districts still in the grip of flood are-Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Darrang, Baksa, Udalguri, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Goalpara, South Salmara,Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Morigaon, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli and Sivasagar districts.

One more person died at Gossaigaon on Kokrajhar district taking the total number of people losing their lives in this year's flood and landslide to 135 across the state, of whom 109 were killed by flood related incidents and 26 died due to landslides.

On Thursday over 12.01 lakh persons were affected across 22 districts.

Goalpara remains the worst-hit with around 3.41 lakh people suffering, followed by Morigaon with more than 2.22 lakh persons and Dhubri with nearly 28000 people.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday visited Sadiya and took stock of measures taken by the Water Resource Department to stop erosion caused by Kundil river on the National Highway 37 there.

Talking to media persons there, Sonowal remarked that Kundil rivers erosion this year threatened to snap Assams road links with other NE states like Arunachal Pradesh and Water Resource Departments timely measures could save the affected portion of the road and the bridge.

The steps taken by the department with the support of district administration and local people have been able to avert the danger posed by erosion to the national highway and a bridge in Sadiya, Sonowal said.

Stating that 28 districts had been affected by flood this year which caused large scale devastations, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modis initiative to constitute North East Water Management Authority (NEWMA) would go a long way in finding permanent solutions to flood and erosion problems in Assam and NE.

Altogether 82,947 hectares of crop areas have been damaged across Assam in deluge, ASDMA said.

It further said authorities are running 137 relief camps and distribution centres across 13 districts where 26169 people taking shelter and the district administrations have distributed rice, dal, salt and mustard oil along with other relief materials such as drinking water, mask and wheat bran.

The mighty Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger marks at Dhubri town, Neamatighat in Jorhat and Tezpur in Sonitpur districts, while its tributaries Dhansiri at Numaligarh in Golaghat, Jia Bharali at NT road crossing in Sonitpur, Kopili at Dharamtul in Nagaon and Beki at Road Bridge in Barpeta.

Embankments, roads, bridges, culverts and many other infrastructure have been damaged at various places in Udalguri, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Sonitpur, Chirang, Lakhimpur, Golaghat and Morigaon districts.

Massive erosion have been witnessed at different places of Udalguri, Sonitpur and South Salmara districts, ASDMA said.

The ASDMA bulletin further said that a total of 17 camps out of 223 at Kaziranga National Park, six out of 40 camps at Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park and 12 of the camps in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary have been troubled by the deluge.

The deluge has so far taken away the lives of 145 different animals, while 169 others were rescued in Kaziranga National Park, the bulletin said quoting DFO of the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division.