Fulohar washes away its banks

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 23 AUG.: The Fulohar river broke the guarding wall at two places and started to gush into villages at Bhaluka Bazaar in Harishchandrapur block II this morning. Hundreds of families residing close to the river where it broke its banks have already shifted to safer areas from last night following an announcement.

The river was flowing nearly 20 cm above its ‘extreme danger level’ (EDL) at 28.35 metres, eroding away its bank to make the lives of people more vulnerable at Bhaluka. The local administration is still fighting to prevent floodwaters from entering into the countryside, but the embankment collapsed by the evening inundating large swamp of lands.

People have been shifted by the administration to the local schools. The district magistrate, Mr Sridhar Ghosh said: “We are monitoring the situation. The government officials including police are working to bring the situation under control. At present, the civil defence volunteers are standing by."

On the other hand, when the floodwaters started to gush into the villages the irrigation officials were facing difficulties to ‘restore’ the damaged guarding wall as a section of villagers’ were resisting. “Villagers opposed the restoration process so that they can shift according to the water level in their villages. They said they would face problem if the guarding wall is washed away at mid night”, said Mr Salil Pal, assistant engineer, irrigation (Mahananda) division.

But the district administration intervened and sent police officers to start restoration of the damaged guarding wall, which was built after the collapse of two embankments over the past few days. “The flow of the waters have been checked after restoration,” irrigation officials reported to the administration.

According to the Chanchal sub-divisional officer, Miss Debjani Datta, four gram panchayat areas in Harishchandrapur block II may be affected by floodwaters. If the river continues to flow, another three gram panchayat of Chanchal block II may be affected. Hundreds of families are already suufering under the waterlogged situations in Islampur and Daulatpur gram panchayats in Harishchandrapur block.

The executive engineer of Malda irrigation division, Mr S Misra said: “The water level will rise till tomorrow morning and it may start to recede if the river’s upper catchments do not receive heavy rainfall. Presently the trend of water level in upper catchments is falling”.