Just a fortnight before West Bengal celebrates its biggest festival Durga Puja, the state government has sounded a flood alert for seven districts in the southern part after a deep depression and heavy rainfall over Jharkhand and western Bengal resulted in a rapid rise in the water levels of rivers and dams in the region.
The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), a central utility which controls dams like Panchet and Maithan, was forced to release 1 lakh cusecs of water. Water levels in several rivers of south Bengal began rising after the DVC started releasing excess water through its dams from 9 am, officials said on Tuesday.
The West Bengal government sounded the alert for districts like West Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, East Burdwan, West Midnapore, Hooghly and Howrah as the authorities apprehend a high possibility of floods in these seven districts ever since the Met department has predicted heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the Damodar Valley Corporation in Jharkhand till 5 October.
“In the past, floods had hit the State whenever the DVC released additional water from Durgapur Barrage. This time, there is a high possibility that the DVC would release additional water because of heavy rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Maithan dam,” said a senior official.
If DVC was forced to release 1.5 lakh cusecs of water, it would spell trouble for several districts downstream, a source added. The district administrations were asked to set up control rooms and stack relief materials after the DVC started releasing excess water via dams. DVC released 90,000 cusecs of water through Maithan and Panchet dams till 11:28am on Tuesday.
“On Monday, DVC released more than 1,20,000 cusecs. It controlled the flow on Tuesday since there was less rainfall in Jharkhand,” an irrigation department official said on condition of anonymity.
“In south Bengal, water level in most rivers in East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, West Midnapore, Bankura, Hooghly and Howrah districts have risen,” he added.West Bengal chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi held a meeting with the district magistrates and asked them to be prepared for floods as there is heavy rain forecast till 5 October. The meeting was also attended by secretaries of Irrigation and waterways and disaster management departments.
State officials were asked to keep in touch with DVC authorities and Jharkhand officials for water release from dams which might flood parts of Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had held a meeting with state officials on Saturday, and asked them to keep ready all relief materials.
She also directed to operate a round-the-clock control room at the districts and sub-divisional levels. The Chief Minister also directed the officials to make arrangements for shifting people from low lying areas and asked officials to keep her posted about the inputs from districts every 12 hours.
Measures suggested by the authorities include evacuation of people in low-lying areas of the districts to safer places, including flood shelters. Close monitoring of vulnerable embankments and immediate repair of any breach has been initiated. Officials said the district administrations had been asked to reserve adequate relief materials to tackle the situation efficiently in case a flood-like situation emerges.
Executive engineers of the Irrigation Department have been asked to closely liaise with district authorities to ensure all river embankments are monitored round-the-clock.
Sources in the state administration said that in the past authorities have remained casual during the festive season, with common people suffering floods. “But this time the Chief Minister wants to keep authorities on their toes as the weather conditions are threatening. She does not want to give the Opposition any scope to question the State’s approach if floods hit Bengal before the Lok Sabha polls,” a source said.