Assam Flood Situation Worsens
Another devastating storm flies away with Assam. A state government official newsletter said on Friday, that more than 35 lakh people across 28 of the 33 districts are now being affected by floods. The official newsletter said: “The number of people killed in State Assam floods and protests this year has risen to 102, and 76 deaths in flood incidents.”
To make the situation even worse, the IMD forecast that the expected heavy rainfall over north and northeast India from July 19-21 will add further woes to the state. Assam faced its first wave of flash floods due to heavy rains triggered by the recent cyclonic storm ‘Amphan,’ which triggered the people in the state to suffer great distress.
However the phenomenon is not new to the state, the floods in the state last year affected almost 43 Lakh people across 30 of the 33 districts in the state. It is therefore important to investigate why each year Assam gets affected by floods.
Assam is a flood-prone state, with its extensive river network. A mixture of natural and insane rendered factors led to the state’s flood-related destruction. The Central Water Commission has reported that all of the state’s main rivers flow above the danger point.
49,977 people are currently taking refuge in over 300 relief camps built in flood-affected districts. Meanwhile, NDRF, SDRF, state police, and locals are on the rescue operations in affected areas. But the main question arises is that Why Assam always get flooded?
In Assam Flood, 26 Districts 27.64 Lakhs Suffered And Death Reaches To 79
Assam flood took three more lives and affected nearly 27.64 lakh people in 26 of the state’s 33 districts. The flood has caused many areas in which homes, crops, roads, and bridges have been destroyed.
Two people died in Barpeta and one in the district of South Salmara, bringing the death toll to 79 as per the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, among the three new fatalities recorded. In their daily report on the flood situation, the Authority data also recorded a total of 26 landslides.
In the meantime, Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna stated that flood management is no problem as separate teams of government employees have been mobilized for flooding and COVID-19 is currently affecting the district. The people affected by the floods on Friday were 35.76 lakh and the affected districts were 28 but the flood situation in the districts of Hojai and West Karbi Anglong get better. Dhubri is the worst hit with affected more than 4.69 lakh people, followed by Goalpara with 4.49 lakh people, Morigaon, and Barpeta with more than 3.5 lakh people.
The districts affected by the flood include Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Nagao, Golaghat, Tinsukia, Karbi Angelong, and Cascara. Karbi Anglong is also known as the district of Benjamin Crisis.
At least 2,678 villages have become submerged in the bulletin, adding that 1,16,404 ha of land has been destroyed by the flood throughout the region.
The ASDMA has reported that 649 relief camps and dispensing centers in 21 districts have been set up in which 47,465 refugees currently take shelter.
Finally, the building of a reservoir that began in the 1950s has affected Assam ‘s economy, but not least, is a massive insane problem. The natural flow of Brahmaputra was disrupted by the unplanned development of these terrains, work has shown.
Authorities in some cases used dredgers to deepen the Brahmaputra. Some environmentalists, however, claim these development projects are carried out with little to no environmental assessment. A report published in 2015 by the Assam government shows that the Brahmaputra-caused bank erosion has destroyed 3,800 square kilometers of farmland since 1954.
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Why Is Assam Affected By Floods?
The major reasons why Assam always get flooded every year in the monsoon period as the Brahmaputra and Barak River, feeding them with more than 50 tributaries, causes the flood devastation. “The flood-prone area of the State as measured by the Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA) is 31,05 Lakh Hectares compared to the total state area 78,523 Lakh Hectares i.e. about 39,58 percent of the total land area of Assam. It is about 9.40 percent of the total flood-prone area in the world. Data show that the average annual flood-prone area is 9.31 Lakh Hectares. Quick every year, three to four flood waves ravage Assam’s flood-prone areas.
Also, the flood situation in Assam is exacerbated as it receives water from rivers flowing down from states like Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Such rivers that flow out of neighboring states cause flash flooding.
“Between 2004 and 2014, Brahmaputra’s southern bank tributaries in lower Assam experienced high magnitude flash floods due to cloud bursts in the Meghalaya catchment areas.
In August 2011, the Gainadi and Jiadhal rivers also witnessed flash floods of very high magnitude due to cloud bursts in the Arunachal Pradesh catchment area. These flash floods destroyed on a large scale in vast areas including the loss of human life, “Assam’s government website reported.
Another major issue is the bank erosion caused by the Brahmaputra River, Barak, and its state tributaries, which causes Assam flood in the low-lying areas whenever a flood occurs.
Conclusion:
Major erosions were also witnessed at various places in the districts of Biswanath, Udalguri, Darrang, and South Salmara, ASDMA said. A total of 59 of 223 camps at Kaziranga National Park were affected by the deluge, the ASDMA bulletin said.