Bhubaneswar: Flood situation in the Mahanadi river system continued to remain grim as several major rivers are still flowing above the danger level inundating several villages along the river coast in the state.
Minister Revenue & Disaster Management Pramila Mallick and SRC Pradeep Jena briefed Media here on 17 August.
Over 4.67 lakh people in 1757 villages under 64 blocks and 10 ULB of 10 districts have so far been affected by the flood, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said here on Wednesday.
Due to heavy rainfall and subsequent floods, over 2.5 lakh people in 425 villages have remained marooned while about 60,000 people have been evacuated to safer places. Cooking food is being served to the evacuated people at different shelters, Jena said.
A total of 10 vehicles carrying RO plants have been deployed to the flood affected areas of Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts to provide safe drinking water to the affected people. The flood has also damaged 2,000 houses while crop land over 30,000 hectares have been submerged in the flood water.
For the first time after 2011, he said, Odisha is experiencing such a high-level of water flow in the Mahanadi system at Mundali. He, however, said that within the next 24 hours, water flow at Mundali will reduce to 9 lakh cusecs.
Due to heavy flow of flood water, two more breaches in river embankments were reported on Wednesday at Kathakote in Jagatsinghpur district. Evacuation has been started in the area. So far six breaches have been reported in different river systems, he informed.
State Revenue and Disaster Minister Pramila Mallik who also chaired a review meeting with the SRC, Water Resources department Engineer in Chief and officials said as many as five districts were severely affected by the ongoing flood in the Mahanadi river system. Mallik said Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Khurdha and Puri districts were affected by the flood.
The government, she said, is working on the basis of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s direction that “every life is precious for the government.’’
The SRC said the water level at Munduli has started receding as by 6 PM the discharge at Munduli has come down to 10,57,604 cusecs from 12,01,426 cusecs reported in the morning at 6 AM.
Official sources said the water level at the Hirakud Dam at 6 PM is 626.17 feet. The inflow of water into the Dam is 5,68,640 cusecs while the outflow is 6,69,583 cusecs. At present 40 sluice gates of Hirakud Dam have been opened and further management of the sluice gates will be taken later as the IMD has predicted light to medium rain on August 18 and 20 due to low pressure.
The government has already deployed NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Service teams where they are needed in the relief and rescue operation in flood-hit areas.
Mahanadi. Meanwhile, the Puri District Collector had declared all schools, both government and private, closed for two days on August 17 and 18 in view of the grim flood situation in the district. The SRC will review the flood situation again at 2100 hours with the officials, sources said.