Guwahati: Floodwaters have begun receding across Assam after the first wave of monsoon floods, but hundreds of affected families in some of the worst-hit villages in Dhemaji district continue to face a shortage of safe drinking water and crop loss..In Dhemaji district, particularly the border villages of Jonai adjoining Arunachal Pradesh, residents said wells have been choked with silt and drinking water supply infrastructure damaged.Among more than 200 flood-affected villages in Dhemaji, Adileku Jarpun Dolung village remains one of the worst impacted. Locals said thick mud deposits have rendered wells unusable, and the Jal Jeevan Mission pipeline network is yet to cover most parts of the village.“There’s no water left in our wells, only mud,” said village ward member Jiban Patir on Thursday. “Even a week after the floodwaters receded, no one has been able to clean the wells because they are filled with thick silt. We don’t know when we will have safe drinking water again.”Patir said govt agencies began supplying water through tankers in their ward only from Wednesday night, but the quantity remains inadequate. “There’s no water left in our wells, only mud,” said village ward member Jiban Patir on Thursday. “Even after the floodwaters receded, no one has been able to clean the wells because they are filled with thick silt. We don’t know when we will have safe drinking water again,” he said.The village, barely 3km from Jonai town along the Arunachal Pradesh border, is home to around 1,700 people, including members of the Mising tribe as well as Bodo, Kachari, Nepali and Muslim families. While many residents have moved to relief camps or relatives’ homes, several Mising families have stayed back in traditional elevated bamboo houses, locally known as chang ghars.Residents said health concerns were rising, with reports of fever, cough and headaches as people continued living amid muddy surroundings and contaminated water.During the peak of the flood earlier this week, over 3,000 hectares of farmland were submerged in Dhemaji district, accounting for most of the nearly 4,000 hectares affected across Assam.“The biggest worry is not today, but what we will eat from later this year. More than half of our nearly 600 bighas of paddy land in our Arun Chapori village had already been planted before the floods. Almost the entire crop has been destroyed,” Telam Gaon Panchayat vice-president Mahendra Padun said.Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visited Arun Chapori village on Wednesday and assured support to farmers. However, residents said they remained uncertain about how cultivation would resume, with farmlands buried under sand and silt deposits left by the floodwaters.
