Assam flood situation worsens, over 67,000 people in 17 districts affected

The flood situation in Assam worsened on Friday with a population of over 67,000 affected in 17 districts of the state as the water level of the major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, flowing above the danger level at several places, an official bulletin said. A population of 67,689 have been affected as against the previous days 41,000 but no death was reported during the day and the toll remained at seven in the current wave of floods, according to the bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).

The number of affected districts have also gone up to 17 as against the previous days 10 and these include Baksa, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpuyt, Majuliu, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Tamulpur and Tinsukia.

The rivers flowing above the danger mark are the Brahmaputra at Dhubri and Tezpur, Beki, Buridihing and the Sankosh at Golakganj.

The districts in Western Assam bordering Bhutan have been put on an alert after excess water was released early morning.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted earlier in the day that excess water is being carefully redirected through the gates to control flow but with the improvement in the upstream neighbouring country, the amount of water released may not be huge.

The district authorities have set up 78 relief camps and distribution centres with 4,531 inmates taking shelter in the camps.

A crop area of 2,770 hectares has been damaged while 49,535 animals were also affected.

An embankment was damaged in Majuli and 18 roads were damaged in Barpeta, Chirang, Dhubri, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Sivasagar and Sonitpur districts.

Large-scale erosion was also reported from Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Sivasagar, and Tamulpur, the bulletin added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)