JOIN USSituation alarming in Bihar; officials put on alert
A day after the overflowing Ganga water entered parts of Patna and inundated low-lying areas of some apartments situated near the river, the flood threat to the state capital subsided on Sunday afternoon when the river started showing a receding trend.
The immediate relief came when lesser quantity of water was discharged on Sunday from Indrapuri barrage over Sone river, some 200 km from here in Rohtas district.
The heavy discharge from Sone, coupled with heavy rainfall in the upper catchment of Ganga in Uttarakhand, had made the mighty river flow 1.5 metre above the red mark (danger level) at Gandhi ghat in Patna on Saturday. However, on Sunday, the water level of the Ganga started receding at a speed of 1.5 cm/hour. “In the last 12 hours, water level has receded by 17 cm,” said an official of the water resources department. The situation had turned alarming on Saturday after the Ganga rose by around 50 cm in the last 36 hours.
The immediate reason behind this surge was heavy discharge of 11.67 lakh cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water from Indrapuri barrage on Sone. One cusec is around 28.3 litres of water flowing per second.
The barrage had to be opened after heavy release of water from Bansagar dam in Madhya Pradesh and Rihand dam in Uttar Pradesh, following heavy rain in the two neighbouring states.
In the meantime, the Bihar government swung into action and pressed army personnel into the rescue operation. Additional personnel from the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force were deployed to shift marooned people from the diara (riverine belt) to safer places.
District Magistrate of Patna Sanjay Agarwal on Sunday ordered closure of all the government schools here.
The flood victims were shifted to the campus of these schools. The Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Patliputra Colony has been converted into a relief camp where people are being provided food and shelter.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who made an aerial survey of the marooned areas, said though the situation was alarming, his officials were alert. “Leave of all the engineers of Water Resources Department and Road Construction Department has been cancelled. If required, more administrative officers will be pressed into service,” he said after taking stock of the flood situation.
Farakka Treaty
Nitish said that he would also ask the Centre to revisit the Farakka agreement.
The Farakka Treaty between India and Bangladesh on sharing of Ganga water does not allow heavy flow of downstream to Bangladesh even during monsoon, leading to water levels rising in the Ganga.