Flood in Assam worsens; 7 dead, over 650,000 displaced

mangaloretoday.com

Assam, Aug 22: Seven people have died and over 650,000 people have been affected by floods in Assam. The situation has worsened due to incessant rains across the state.

Assam state disaster management authority (ASDMA) said in its flood report that two persons drowned on National Highway-31 in Dhubri district. Two other died in Kokrajhar in the last 24 hours, it added.

With this, the death toll in this year’s flood in Assam has gone up to 12 - four in Kokrajhar, two each in Lakhimpur and Dhubri, and one each in Bongaigaon, Baksa, Sonitpur and Chirang.

ASDMA said over 6.55 lakh persons have been affected in 1,417 villages across Dhemaji, Kokrajhar, Chirang, Lakhimpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Bongaigaon, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Barpeta, Jorhat, Goalpara, Morigaon, Dhubri, Kamrup, Golaghat and Darrang districts.

 

Till Saturday, over 576,000 people in 19 districts were reeling under flood waters.

The worst hit is Bongaigaon district where over 168,000 persons were affected, followed by Kokrajhar with more than 164,000 people bearing the brunt, ASDMA said.

Kamrup Metropolitan district administration has suspended all ferry services in Guwahati due to rising water level of Brahmaputra, which has already crossed the danger mark.

More than 57,500 hectares of crop areas are also under water.

The flood waters have damaged at least 54 roads in Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri, Golaghat, Dibrugarh and Bongaigaon, while five bridges were damaged in Barpeta and Dibrugarh.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi reviewed the flood situation with water resources minister Basanta Das and senior officials at the chief minister’s secretariat.

Gogoi directed the revenue and disaster management department to take all possible steps to gear up relief and rescue operations and asked it to provide food, medicine, drinking water to people housed in relief camps.

Kokrajhar district is one of the worst hit, where 84 relief camps have been set up, officials said.