JOIN USMajor flood threat averted in Kosi belt
The moment Nepal alerted India that it would release huge volume of water which had accumulated in Sindhupalchok district of the Himalayan country following a landslide in the wee hours of Saturday, Bihar government cancelled leave of its engineers and doctors in nine districts along the Indo-Nepal border to meet any situation.
It then dispatched a special team of its bright engineers from the Water Resources Department to the incident site (in Nepal) where they suggested to the Nepalese Army to make small holes in the blockage at the landfill site so that small quantity of water could be released.
Nepal Army was then asked to carry out staggered blast so that the debris is not removed in one go and water gradually starts flowing downstream. This method helped in reducing pressure on Birpur Barrage (in Bihar’s Supaul district), which has a capacity of six lakh cusecs water thus preventing damage to the embankment.
“Another significant step taken was the release of water from the Birpur barrage. Having flown the water downstream, the barrage is now ready to withstand the pressure of nearly five lakh cusecs water likely to be released by Nepal in the next few days,” said Bihar’s Water Resources Minister Vijay Choudhary.
The timely deployment of NDRF and SDRF team, along with a team of doctors and Army personnel, also helped the local administration of eight districts chalk out a relief and rescue operations methodically.