Floodwaters from the Gandak, Bagmati, Burhi Gandak, and Kamla rivers, as well as other rivers in north Bihar, have destroyed crops and displaced over 30 lakh people in 14 districts, including East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Katihar, Muzaffarpur, and Vaishali. So far, at least 43 people have died due to floods.
The traffic on the Benibad-Runnisaidpur road in Sitamarhi rivers overtook it. The Ganga, however, was flowing below the danger level in most places, including Digha and Gandhi Ghat in Patna. Only at Hathidah, Kahalgaon, and Farakka was the water level above the danger level.
Most of the Bagmati was flowing above the danger level, including Kataunja (1.72 metre) and Benibad (1.27 metre). At Jhanjharur, the Kamala was also flowing 1.80 metres above the danger mark.
However, residents of the Gandak river basin were relieved because, contrary to the widespread belief last night that 5 lakh cusecs of water would be released from the Valmikinagar barrage, only 3.57 lakh cusecs were released on Monday morning. This is, by the way, much less than the 4.12 lakh cusecs of water released on June 26 of this year.
The water discharge through the Valmikinagar barrage was 2.67 lakh cusecs on Sunday afternoon, but heavy rainfall was received in the catchment areas of the three tributaries of Gandak in Nepal, which, by late night, heightened fears of a large layer of water rushing towards the barrage from the Nepal side.
As a result, the West Champaran district administration issued a general high alert late Sunday night and also alerted the circle officers (COs) concerned, including those in the Sadar block, to sound the alert through miking and advising people to escape to safer areas
According to a Water Resources Department (WRD) official, “We would say that the rush of water from the upper reaches of Gandak on Sunday night was flash flood caused by erratic heavy Rain.” He added, “In any case, we had apprehended such a phenomenon by looking at the satellite images of the cloud concentration. According, our forecast was that around 3.70 lakh cusecs of water will be released from the Valmikinagar barrage. The actual discharge was 3.57 lakh cusecs in the morning”.
