Guwahati, June 19
The flood situation in Assam worsened on Sunday, claiming nine more lives, including three children, and suffering over 42 lakh people in 31 districts, an official bulletin said.
According to the daily flood report of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), six people drowned and three died in landslides in different parts of the state.
It said that the dead included three persons including a child in Cachar, two persons including a child in Barpeta and one each in Bajli, Kamrup, Karimganj and Udalguri districts. Apart from this, eight more people are missing in five districts.
With this, the total number of people who lost their lives in this year’s floods and landslides has gone up to 71.
The bulletin said that at least 42,28,100 people have been affected by the floods.
Barpeta is the most affected district with over 12.76 lakh people, followed by Darang with around 3.94 lakh people affected and Nagaon with over 3.64 lakh people affected by floods.
Massive landslides were reported from Cachar, Dima Hasao, Goalpara, Hailakandi, Kamrup Metropolitan and Karimganj.
Till Saturday, nearly 31 lakh people were affected by the floods in 27 districts of the state.
The Met Office has issued an ‘Orange Alert’ for Monday, while a ‘Yellow Alert’ has been issued for Tuesday to Thursday.
During the next 48 hours, widespread rain with thunderstorm/lightning/heavy to very heavy rainfall is very likely to continue at isolated places over northeastern states and thereafter decrease in intensity.
The ASDMA said that at present 5,137 villages are submerged in water and 1,07,370.43 hectares of crop area has been damaged.
The authorities are running 1,147 relief camps and distribution centers in 27 districts where 1,86,424 people, including 29,722 children, are taking shelter.
In the last 24 hours, 8,760 people have been rescued from various flood-affected areas.
Heavy erosion was witnessed in other areas including Baksa, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhubri, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli and Morigaon.
In many districts, flood waters have damaged embankments, roads, bridges and other infrastructure. ASDMA said that a total of 29,28,030 domestic animals and poultry have been affected by the floods in 25 districts.
Quoting the bulletin of the Central Water Commission, the ASDMA said that the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger mark at Jorhat, Tezpur, Goalpara town and Nimtighat in Dhubri town.
Its tributaries Beki, Manas, Pagaladiya, Puthimari, Kopili and Subansiri are also flowing above the danger mark.