To check the unpredictable...

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 20 AUG.: The Fulohar river washed away its embankments including the new one, whose crest was eroded upto 100 meter, out of its 130 metre length, at Bhaluka Bazaar here today.

Having failed to save the embankment, the irrigation department had finally started building a barricade along the river with the help of gunny bags filled with sand just to prevent flood waters from entering the locality today.

Hundreds of labourers have been employed there for building a barricade, where the embankment got eroded.

“We are helpless because of the unpredictable river. The river tends to meet its old course at Bhaluka Bazaar which is close to the damaged dyke, before inundating any vast area”, said Mr Salil Pal, the assistant engineer of the Mahananda embankment division.

Fearing the possibilty of a flood, the district administration had already made an announcement to shift people to safer areas in more than eight gram panchayats under five blocks in Chanchal sub-division.

“We have identified some shelters and requisitioned boats for rescue operations. A fresh requisition for relief materials have been sent to the headquarters”, said Miss Debjani Datta, the Chanchal SDO.

According to the district flood cell, the situation is grave and gradually deteriorating following the rising water level. It was found that the three rivers ~ the Ganga, the Mahananda and the Fulohar ~ are rising following torrential rain in their upper catchments.

Though the water level of the Fulohar is 27.65 metre at present, but it would be rising further within the next 48 hours following rainfall at Purnia in Bihar and in Darjeeling districts where the Mahananda was flowing at 45 cms above the ‘extreme danger level’ around 2.30 a.m. today.

The Malda district administration has set up camps in the nearby areas of Bhaluka where official staffs have been engaged for night duty to monitor the situation and additional police force have also been deployed to control the situation when the river will wash away its banks.