

PATNA: The flood situation in 20 of the 38 Bihar districts remained grim on Wednesday with the toll rising to 176, including five persons - three in Munger and two in Bhagalpur district - drowning in the floodwaters during the last 24 hours.

The flood fury is unlikely to relent over the next couple of days as the water level of the 13 rivers in spate is either hovering around the danger level or flowing above it. The meteorological department has forecast heavy rains in north Bihar districts from September 8. Besides, heavy rains have been reported from the catchment areas of major rivers originating in Nepal, falling into the Ganga. Most notably, the water level of the Ganga is above the danger level in all the 12 districts through which it passes in Bihar.

The 12 districts hit by the Ganga are Buxar, Bhojpur, Patna, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Munger, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Katihar. Bhagalpur and Katihar constitute the major receptacle of water from the Ganga and other rivers, beyond which lie the Farakka barrage in West Bengal.

At Patna, the Ganga has been flowing above the danger level since July 26. Overall, 59 lakh people have been hit by the flood in the state. Disaster management department (DMD) principal secretary Vyas Ji, who oversaw the rescue and relief operations in the Patna diara areas (land mass formed in the riverbed used for both habitations and agriculture activities, but gets submerged during flood).

"On Wednesday, too, he went out by boat to reach out to people marooned by the Ganga flood in the parts of Patna and Vaishali districts to oversee the relief and rescue operations," said DMD officer on special duty Sandeep Kumar.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams have been pressed into service for conducting rescue and relief operations in 11 of the 12 districts hit by the Ganga. Moreover, 2,930 private boats have also been engaged for rescuing the marooned people in various districts, he added.

Water resources department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and its principal secretary Arun Kumar Singh reviewed the status of 3,732km-long flood protection embankments in the state. Choudhary said the 10-metre breach in the embankment in Parbatta block of Khagaria district has been plugged. "Even today, the embankments constructed to keep at bay the floodwaters of the Ganga were under tremendous pressure, but the engineers and officials have been maintaining utmost vigil," said a WRD official.

Meanwhile, the water level in the Ganga has been going down all along its downstream in the last 24 hours - at Allahabad by 112cm, at Varanasi by 92cm, at Buxar by 23cm, at Digha Ghat and Gandhi Ghat in Patna by 9cm and 6cm, respectively. The situation in Bhagalpur, however, is unlikely to improve.

