Floods in Odisha worsen, over five lakh people affected

Bhubaneswar: The flood situation in several northern Odisha districts was alarming on Monday, as the swollen Subarnekha river inundated low-lying areas and left people in over 100 villages marooned, officials said.

The water level in all the rivers located in north Odisha is in spate due to heavy rain caused by a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal, and subsequent flood-water release from Jharkhand, they said.

Authorities in Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts had on Sunday launched a massive evacuation drive to shift people from vulnerable areas to safer locations, which is continuing on Monday, they said.

Subarnarekha has been rising significantly since Sunday evening, inundating many areas in Baliapal, Bhograi, Basta and Jaleswar in Balasore by 11 am, the officials said. The Saraskana and Rasgovindpur blocks in the Mayurbhanj districts have also been submerged. The authorities expect peak flooding to take place after more water is released from the Galudih barrage in Jharkhand.

As per data from the Central Water Commission (CWC), the water level of Subarnarekha at Rajghat in the district was 11.90 metres at 9 am as against the danger level of 10.36 metres, while at Jamsolaghat, it was 50.04 metres as against the danger level of 49.15 metres.

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Apart from the Subarnarekha river, the Balasore district is also affected by the flood waters of rivers Budhabalang and Jalaka, they said. In the Jajpur district, the Baitarani river inundated a number of blocks, including Dasrathpur and Korei, while in Keonjhar, several places in Hatadihi, Ghasipura and Anandapur are underwater.

'Odisha authorities fully prepared'

Odisha Water Resources Minister Tukuni Sahu, after reviewing the flood situation, said: “Though the Subarnarekha river is still flowing above the danger mark, the water level has remained stable for the last eight hours. We are keeping a close watch on it.” She asserted that the authorities are fully prepared to deal with any eventuality.

“Nearly 156 villages in 83-gram panchayats in the Balasore district have been hit by the flood. The administration has evacuated 40,000 people by Monday noon, and they are housed in 227 temporary shelters. The process is still underway,” Balasore District Collector Dattatraya Bhausaheb Shinde said.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik delegated the powers of a special relief commissioner to the collector of the Balasore district so that the local administration could be more effective. A helicopter was also placed at his disposal to deal with any emergency.

An IMD bulletin has forecast heavy rain in northern Odisha districts on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Special Relief Commissioner P K Jena has written to the district collectors of Khurda, Puri, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Nayagarh, Balasore, Bhadrak, Keonjhar and Boudh, asking them to distribute sanitary napkins free of cost to women marooned in the flood.

“Sanitary napkins distributed to flood-affected women in Bichana village of Garadpur. Other flood-affected areas will be covered too,” the district collector of Kendrapara said on Twitter.

Odisha is already reeling under the impact of moderate floods in the Mahanadi river system, following incessant rainfall, which has affected over eight lakh people. Nearly five lakh are still marooned in 763 villages, according to government estimates.