Patna: Additional chief secretary, disaster management department, Pratyaya Amrit, on Sunday put the DMs and administrations concerned of 15 districts along the Kosi, Gandak and Sone rivers on high alert. The alert comes amid forecasts of heavy rainfall in Nepal, Bihar’s border areas, the Sone river’s catchment zones, and several parts of the state over the next two to three days.The 15 districts vulnerable to the floodwaters are Saharsa, Supaul, Madhepura, Khagaria and Bhagalpur in the Kosi basin; West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Saran and Vaishali in the Gandak basin, as well as Patna, Arwal, Aurangabad, Bhojpur and Rohtas in the basin of the Sone river.Pratyaya, during a review meeting through video conferencing, gave instructions to the DMs and other officials from the districts concerned to be on high alert. Senior officials, including water resources department (WRD) principal secretary Santosh Kumar Mall and DMD secretary Chandrashekhar Singh, were present in the meeting.In view of the emerging scenario, teams of WRD engineers, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), too, have been asked to remain alert to respond to any emergency situation. If flood is apprehended, they have been asked to inform people on loudspeakers in advance about the emerging situation, asking them to move to safer places. In the flood situation, if the waters enter the villages and affect human habitations, then they should be evacuated to safer points. They have also been asked to be ready to run relief shelters and community kitchens.WRD principal secretary Mall told the participants in the meeting that the water discharge through the Birpur barrage across the Kosi river in Supaul district was 1.10 lakh cusecs on Sunday, but there was rising trend, and its volume could increase if the river’s catchment areas in Nepal received high rainfall over the next three days. As on date, all the embankments of the department were safe, and flood fighting materials had been stored in advance at the sensitive spots, Mall added.The Central Water Commission and WRD bulletin on Sunday said the rainfall received at a dozen of places in the last 24 hours in the state was in the range of 60 mm to 140 mm—Rauta (140 mm), Sikti (70.4 mm), Araria (80 mm) and Amour (80 mm) in Araria district, Khagaria (117 mm), Bhagalpur (82.4 mm), Hathidah (69.2 mm) and Taiyabpur (82.4 mm) in the basin of the river Mahananda.However, in Patna the water level of the Ganga river on Sunday showed a falling trend, but it still continued to flow above the danger mark at Digha by 1 cm, at Gandhi Ghat 49 cm and Hathidah 46 cm. The situation could get exacerbated, as the water levels of Gandak and Sone were rising. Those marooned in the diara areas of Patna district were crossing the Ganga by boat to reach the higher points on the ground for safety.
