The Odisha government on Thursday said there has been a marked improvement in the flood situation in the state.
However, the toll as well as the number of affected people have gone up. Lakhs of people remained marooned by the flood water in different districts.
“The flood situation in the state is certainly improving. This is primarily because of less flow of flood water in the river system of Mahanadi, the biggest river in the state. We were expecting the peak flow of flood water in Mahanadi to be 12 lakh cusecs.
However, it turned out to be 11 lakh cusecs on Wednesday night. It was a great relief for us. We expect the flood situation to improve further in the next couple of days,” the special relief commissioner (SRC), Pradipta Mohapatra said.
He confirmed that the number of people affected by the floods had gone up. By Thursday evening, a total of 17, 88, 866 people in 23 out of the 30 districts were affected by the calamity. The number was around 10 lakh on Wednesday.
Similarly, the official death figure in the floods has gone up from 27 on Wednesday to 35 by Thursday evening. Most of the deaths have occurred due to drowning. The toll is expected to further go up.
Mohapatra further acknowledged that nearly 4 lakh people still remained marooned by the flood waters. In fact, the number of villages that have been cut-off has gone up from 398 on Wednesday to 830 by Thursday evening. A total number of 243 free kitchens have been opened in different districts to provide cooked food to flood-affected villagers.
However, the number of evacuated people has gone down from 1,39,000 on Wednesday to 79,430 on Thursday. “This is because in many flood-hit areas people have started going back to their homes following fall in the water level,” the SRC said. The top flood management official said that barring one, the water level in all major rivers in the state had started receding.
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels| Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks