Orissa flood that have killed 22 people and affected 2 million

Mtoday news / PTI

Bubaneswar, Sept 15: Floods in Orissa that have killed at least 22 people and affected more than two million over the past week could have been avoided had the authorities been cautious in releasing water from the Hirakud dam, experts say.

 

 

Heavy rains and the release of huge quantity of water from Hirakud reservoir have wrecked havoc in about 4,000 villages in more than half of state’s 30 districts, mostly located on the downstream. At least 24,429 houses have been damaged.
   

The state government says the flood was caused by the heavy rain at the upper catchments area of the dam and release of water from Chhattisgarh. The Hirakud dam, built across the Mahanadi river, about 350 km from here in Sambalpur district, is one of the longest in the world.

 

 

Although it is one of independent India’s early multipurpose river valley projects, the primary aim of the dam is to control flood in the downstream areas. This year, it opened 59 gates, 39 out of which were to be opened within a span of 48 hours, to release excess water it received from upper catchments areas. This sudden release of so much water was easily avoidable, activists say.

Activists counter that authorities should have kept releasing water at regular intervals from the dam, keeping the climatic conditions and rain forecasts in mind.    The full reservoir level at the dam is 630 feet. As per the prescribed guideline, the water level at the dam should have been kept at 590 feet Aug 1, but this year, it was as high as 607.27 feet during that period.

Heavy rains and the release of huge quantity of water from Hirakud reservoir have wrecked havoc in about 4,000 villages in more than half of state’s 30 districts, mostly located on the downstream. At least 24,429 houses have been damaged.    The flood was man made. Had the government acted on time, the floods could have been averted,’ state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik said.