Mahanadi River swells in Janjgir-Champa and Raigarh districts, may cause flood-like situation
Raipur: With many parts of Chhattisgarh receiving heavy rainfalls since the past few days, the water level of rivers has started rising steadily. Keeping this in view, the state government has issued flood alerts for villages located near rivers, especially the ones near the Mahanadi River.
Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel has directed the district administration to ensure special monitoring and take remedial measures in the villages of Janjgir-Champa and Raigarh districts located near the Mahanadi River. The team of officers is continuously monitoring the water level of the Mahanadi River. Along with making ‘Munadi’ in villages in low-lying areas, the district administration has started taking remedial measures to bring people to safer places.
Meanwhile, rivers have started to swell due to incessant rains. Irrigation dams and reservoirs located in Raipur, Durg, and Bastar divisions are full. In such a situation, water is being released continuously from dams and reservoirs, due to which the water level of Mahanadi is rising steadily. Nearly 52 thousand cusecs of water is being released per second from Ravi Shankar reservoir in Dhamtari district, while five thousand cusecs from Sondhur dam, 13 thousand 400 cusecs water from Sikaser, thus a total of 70 thousand 400 cusecs of water is being released into Mahanadi. Similarly, a total of 70 thousand cusecs of water is being released into the Shivnath River.
About 900000 cusecs of water is being released in Hirakud dam. The Hirakud Dam authorities have agreed to release water from the dam following a special initiative of the Chhattisgarh government despite heavy rains in the Mahanadi delta region of Odisha and the flood-like situation. So far, about 450000 cusecs of water is being released from Hirakud which is almost half of its capacity. This has resulted in a flood-like situation and water logging in Raigarh and Janjgir Champa districts. Disaster management teams have started relief and rescue work in the affected areas. Assistance has been sought from NDRF for relief measures. If the incessant rains do not stop, then flood like situation may arise in the areas near Mahanadi River in both the aforementioned districts.
