The flood situation in Assam worsened on Friday with over 67,000 people being affected across 17 districts, as the water level of the major rivers, including the Brahmaputra, flowing above the danger level at several places. However, no deaths were reported.
The death toll remained at seven in the current wave of floods, according to the bulletin of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).
The number of affected districts have also gone up to 17 as against the previous day’s 10. The affected districts are: Baksa, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhemaji, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kokrajhar, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Tamulpur and Tinsukia.
The rivers flowing above the danger mark are the Brahmaputra at Dhubri and Tezpur, Beki, Buridihing and the Sankosh at Golakganj.
The districts in Western Assam bordering Bhutan have been put on an alert after excess water was released early morning.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted earlier in the day that excess water is being carefully redirected through the gates to control flow but with the improvement in the upstream neighbouring country, the amount of water released may not be huge.
“We are keeping a constant vigil on the situation in various districts of Lower Assam,” he tweeted.
The district authorities have set up 78 relief camps and distribution centres with 4,531 inmates taking shelter in the camps. A crop area of 2,770 hectares has been damaged while 49,535 animals were also affected.
An embankment was damaged in Majuli and 18 roads were damaged in Barpeta, Chirang, Dhubri, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Sivasagar and Sonitpur districts. Large-scale erosion was also reported from Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Sivasagar, and Tamulpur, the bulletin added.