Ganga water level starts receding, flood situation still grim

The Ganga and five other rivers were still flowing above danger mark in many parts of Bihar having triggered a flood-like situation in the districts situated along their banks.
The districts witnessing flood-like situation included Patna, Vaishali, Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Lakhisarai, Khagaria, Munger, Bhagalpur and Katihar, a Disaster Management Department statement said.
The six rivers including Ganga were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur and Buxar districts, it said.
Ganga was flowing above danger mark at six places - Digha ghat, Gandhi Ghat, Hathidah in Patna, Bhagalpur and Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district - and in certain points of Munger district and Buxar district, it said.

However water level in Ganga at Gandhi and Digha ghats here showed a receding trend, indicating that the state capital does not face imminent flood threat from the swollen river.
"Both Gandhi Ghat and Digha Ghat are witnessing a receding trend. The water level is 50.18 meter and 51.74 meter at Gandhi Ghat and Digha Ghat respectively. The water level are receding or would remain constant," Patna District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal told PTI.

At present, there is no possibility of Ganga waters entering the city, he said.
As per the Water Resources Department, several other rivers, apart from Ganga, were too flowing above danger mark.

Quoting Central Water Commission's report, the department
said water level of Ganga was flowing above danger level at Gandhi Ghat, Digha Ghat and Hathidah (Patna) by 168 cm, 79 cm and 141 cm respectively at 6 AM today.
The department said there will be a decline of water level by 20 cm further at Digha ghat (Patna) by tomorrow morning.
Altogether 1,39,330 persons have been evacuated to safer places so far, the statement said, adding around 1.05 lakh people have taken shelter in 162 relief camps.
All camps have the facilities of medical teams apart from halogen tablets to clean drinking water.

1,537 boats are pressed into service by the government to evacuate the affected people to safer places, besides National and State Disaster Response Force teams, already been deployed in the affected districts.
India Meteorological Department (IMD) has made a forecast of light to moderate rains in the catchment areas of rivers of Bihar next 24 hours, the IMD release said.