Patna: Flooding worsened in Bihar on Sunday after several rivers breached its mud embankments, inundating new areas in around a dozen districts.
The floodwaters have damaged roads, railway lines, uprooted electricity poles and brought down many homes. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar conducted an aerial review of the flood-affected areas to examine the overall situation.
Hapless villagers have fled to higher ground and are taking shelter along railway lines or river embankments after floodwater entered their homes. Although the administration claims to have put 14 motor boats and 170 boats into service to evacuate villagers trapped in their flooded homes, this is proving to be insufficient.
A peculiar scene was witnessed in the Forbesganj block of eastern Bihar’s Araria district where a newly-wed couple had to use a makeshift boat made of empty drums and bamboo logs to reach their home from the wedding venue as the village road was washed away.
Local TV grabs showed the couple getting down from the flower-bedecked car midway and hopping on-board the makeshift boat along with their belongings. The footage showed the couple sitting on the makeshift boat and other relatives moving side by side wading through the waist-deep water to support the couple.
“We had to construct the makeshift boat for sending the newly-wed couple home as there was no other alternative to reach there. The only road leading the village has been washed away by the floodwaters,” a relative of the groom told the media.
A report from the water resources department said major rivers such as Bagmati, Kamla Balan and Bhutahi Balann breached its mud embankments at seven places in three districts of Sitamarhi, Jhanjharpur and Darbhanga, inundating many villages.
Meanwhile, all 56 gates of Kosi barrage at Birpur in Supaul district have been opened following the rise in water levels of the Kosi river caused by heavy rains in catchment areas of Nepal.
The flood situation has also turned critical in Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Sheohar where water has entered several villages, prompting residents to flee their homes with their cattle and belongings.
Authorities said they are evacuating the affected villagers and setting up community kitchens for those who are unwilling to move.
“We have set up 16 community kitchens so far,” Bihar disaster management’s principal secretary Pratyay Amrit told the media.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar held a meeting with officials of the water resources, disaster management and road construction departments on Sunday and ordered them to keep a watch on rising water level of rivers, discharge from barrage and condition of river embankments round the clock to respond to any kind of emergency, before leaving for aerial survey.
Water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said his department has built a massive network of some 3,800km of embankments, so far, to contain and regulate flood water in the state.
“For the Kosi, Baghmati-Adhwara basins, we have already installed a 72-hour early flood warning facility. Next in line is the Gandak basin,” the minister said on Sunday adding they were also close to putting up a Real Time Data Acquisition System in 5 river basins and 18 reservoirs in the state.
Bihar’s man opposition the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) slammed the chief minister for the prevailing flood situation in Bihar and alleged the ruling regime didn’t take adequate preventive measures to contain floods, rather it continued on blaming “Nature and rats” for this situation.
“Many districts of Bihar are facing floods but instead of launching relief and rescue measures, the ruling government is working on the plan to blame Nature and rats for the floods,” alleged former chief minister Rabri Devi. She also asked chief minister Kumar to reveal how much amount was spent on chalking out long term plan to contain floods during his 14-year-old tenure.
