Assam flood situation worsens, number of affected rise to over 100,000

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The flood situation in Assam worsened on Saturday with the number of affected people rising to over one lakh, from over 67,000 the previous day, in 17 districts of the state as major rivers including the Brahmaputra were in spate, an official bulletin said.

However, the toll in the current wave of the floods remained unchanged at seven as no fresh death was reported, according to the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) bulletin.

A total of 1,07,829 people remained affected in Baksa, Bishwanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Tamulpur and Tinsukia districts, it said.

The number of affected people was 67,689 in the same districts on Friday.

Brahmaputra was flowing above the danger level in Dhubri, Tezpur and Nematighat, while Buridihing and Sankosh were in spate in Golakganj.

An alert was issued in the western districts bordering Bhutan as excess water was released from the Himalayan kingdom since Friday morning.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday night in New Delhi and apprised him of the flood situation, along with relief and rehabilitation measures taken by the state government.

He also thanked Shah for releasing Rs 340 crore to the state for the situation.

Sarma said the state government was making efforts to channelise excess water from the Brahmaputra to the wetlands and build road-cum-embankments to tackle floods.

The district authorities have set up 93 relief camps and distribution centres with 4,275 inmates taking shelter in these facilities.

A crop area of 4168.40 hectares has been damaged, while 72,315 animals have also been affected.

Three embankments were affected in Golaghat and Majuli, while 42 roads were damaged in Chirang, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, and Sivasagar districts.

Large-scale erosion was also reported in Bongaigaon, Charaideo, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Nalbari Sivasagar and South Salmara districts, the bulletin added.