With the upper catchment of the Mahanadi, Odisha’s largest river, receiving heavy rain for past two days, coastal districts in the State are bracing for heavy floods.
According to State Water Resource Department, the upper catchment of the Mahanadi, which falls in Chhattisgarh, has recorded heavy downpour during the past two days.
Many villages in three Odisha districts marooned by floodwaters
In Chhattisgarh, rainfall was measured at 264.2 mm at Champa, and at 248.4 mm in Basantpur, on Friday.
“As per engineers’ assessment, 6.60 lakh cusecs of water from Chhattisgarh is entering Hirakud Reservoir – Odisha’s biggest flood control structure. If water discharge from the Ib and Bheden rivers of Odisha is taken into consideration, Harkud would receive more than 8 lakh cusecs water,” said Pradeep Jena, Managing Director, Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA).
Huge inflow of water forced the Hirakud authorities to open 20 sluice gates in the morning. Later, 20 more gates were opened to release flood water. The reservoir level in Hirakud stood at 625.58 feet.
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In the lower catchment, the Mahanadi river is likely to get flood water from tributaries such as Tel, Jeera, Ong, Harihar Jor and Surbuali Jor.
“We are expecting that Mundali, which is the delta head, will receive a maximum of 10.5 lakh cusecs of water. We have not recorded any rainfall from Khairmal and Mundali. So there has been faster discharge of water into sea. When flood water from Hirakud reservoir would come, we should not face any problem in water discharge,” said Mr. Jena.
As a precautionary measure, the government was pre-positioning personnel of disaster response forces in the region vulnerable to flood in Jagatsingpur, Cuttack, Puri and Kendrapara, said the OSDMA head.
Following heavy rain induced by a Low Pressure Area over the Bay of Bengal earlier this week, over 4.15 lakh people in 1,276 villages in 10 districts have been affected by flood and water-logging.
About 3.83 lakh people in mostly Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj district remained marooned due to flood in other river systems such as Brahmani, Baitarani, Subarnarekha and Burhabalanga. As many as 18,534 people were evacuated to safer places.
“We have received information about the occurrence of 14 breaches in different river embankments. In the Bari block of Jajpur district, many breaches in the Brahmani river embankment with length ranging between 30 metres and 90 metres have been reported. We have sent manpower to the spot to plug the breaches,” said Mr. Jena.
