As the incessant monsoon rains continued, flood situation in Assam further worsened on Saturday with 1,289 villages in 21 districts being inundated, distressing 4.63 lakh people, while the Brahmaputra is flowing above the danger level at many places in nine districts, officials said.
Meanwhile, officials of the state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL) said that thanks to the heavy downpour over the past few days, Baghjan – where its leaking oiler caught fire – and adjoining areas in Tinsukia district are badly hit by flood water and therefore the accident site has been inundated, affecting the efforts to douse the blaze.
“All connecting roads to the OIL’s oiler site are submerged with flood water. Bridges were damaged. At many places water is flowing over the road with knee to waist trouble . OIL’s operational areas are heavily inundated,” an OIL release said.
A massive fire broke out on June 9 at OIL’s Baghjan oiler near the Dibru-Saikhowa park that had been spewing gas and oil condensates uncontrollably since May 27.
An important bridge on the way to Baghjan, around 550 km east of Guwahati, was damaged thanks to the floods and therefore the Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the official to create a Bailey bridge for unimpeded movement of emergency services.
An official of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that the flood-hit districts are Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Udalguri, Darrang, Nalbari, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Chirang, Bongaigaon, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Morigaon and Tinsukia.
The official said : “Over 4.63 lakh people suffering from the floods and over 37,313 Ahectares of crop were badly affected thanks to the floods. Around 19,500 people took shelter in 132 relief camps.”
The official said that within the current wave of floods, three persons died in Goalpara and Dibrugarh districts while within the first wave of floods from May 22 claimed 15 lives in several districts of Assam.
In all, a minimum of 2,49,300 various pets (domestic) animals were affected thanks to the present wave of floods since early in the week .
The National Disaster Response Force, Assam State Disaster Response Force personnel, along side local administrations, are continuously working to rescue the affected people and rendering the relief services, including distribution of relief to the marooned villagers.
TThe Chief Minister has also directed the Deputy Commissioners of all the affected districts to deal with the requirements of the flood-hit people urgently while also adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols. Meanwhile, the heavy monsoon rains affected the traditional life in most of the opposite northeastern states.
The rain water has inundated vast low lying areas of Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
