The Hindu : Front Page : Flood situation in Orissa fast worsening as Mahanadi rises

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 01, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Flood situation in Orissa fast worsening as Mahanadi rises

Special Correspondent

River flowing over danger mark near Cuttack; Punjab Regiment Centre to stand by

Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

FLOOD HAVOC: The Mahanadi in spate presents an awesome sight at Naraj in Orissa after a heavy inflow from the Hirakud dam.

BHUBANESWAR: At least 10 districts in Orissa have been affected by floods in the Mahanadi river system following heavy rains in the lower catchments of the Hirakud reservoir on August 28 and 29.

Water level in the Mahanadi and its tributaries and distributaries were rising, threatening to inundate more areas by Friday. As the situation was likely to worsen, the Punjab Regiment Centre at Ramgarh has been asked to remainalert with boats.

Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force units have already been deployed at various locations, State Chief Secretary Subas Pani told presspersons at the State Secretariat here.

The Mahanadi was flowing over the danger mark at the Naraj gauge station near Cuttack on Thursday afternoon and the water level was on the rise, Mr. Pani said. At 3 p.m. on Thursday, 11.60 lakh cusecs of water was flowing at the Mundali gauge station on Mahanadi. The volume was likely to touch the 13 lakh cusecs mark by midnight, Special Relief Commissioner Jagadananda Panda said. Some 35 lakh people in the coastal districts were affected when water volume at Mundali touched 13.49 lakh cusecs during the devastating floods in 2001.

Affected districts

The districts that have been already hit by the current spell of floods include Nayagarh, Bolangir, Subarnapur, Cuttack, Kandhamal, Khurda, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Boudh, Mr. Panda said. He said over 1,60,000 people living in as many as 407 villages had been affected so far. However, there had been no casualty.

More areas were likely to be marooned in the coastal districts of Nayagarh, Puri, Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara, as water level in Devi, Kathajodi and Kushabhadra, the distributaries of the Mahanadi, were on the rise.

People living in low-lying areas have been asked to move to safer places.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page