Irrigation Department finishes repair work of embankments

Kolkata: Despite lockdown, the state Irrigation and Waterways department has ensured completion of repair work of all the 760 damages that were identified on river embankments across Bengal to avoid flood-like situations in vulnerable areas when normal monsoon with around 96 percent rainfall has been predicted this year.

The pre-monsoon restoration work has been carried out by the Mamata Banerjee government to ensure safety of people at an expense of Rs 190 crore.

According to a senior official of the department, three main reasons facilitated the quick repair work of the 760 damages. Firstly, the embankments had become weaker in several places as the water level in rivers rose during the last year's monsoon and later the same portions got damaged. In some places, the regular fluctuation in the water level due to high and low tide had badly affected the embankments while even at certain areas, they were also damaged by animals as they dug up soil and made huge holes.

"This time we had identified 760 locations where such damages were caused to embankments and we are quite successful in meeting the target of completing the repairing of the same before the situation turns worse during monsoon this time," the official said adding that there is a prediction of 96 to 104 percent rainfall, of the long-period average, this monsoon.

The situation would turn challenging if around 300 to 400 mm rainfall takes place in a day. State Irrigation minister Suvendu Adhikari held a meeting with representatives of the Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) and other concerned Central government agencies last week to take necessary steps to check flood-like situation in Bengal. DVC has been asked to take all necessary steps for maximum storage capacity in its reservoirs and to ensure proper routing of water.

Release of water from Jharkhand also leads to flood-like situations in Bengal and it has come up as a major issue in the meeting, sources said.

In the past nine years, the state government has constructed and strengthened 3,778 km embankments, including 300 km in 2019-20 financial year.

North Bengal mainly gets flooded as water gets released from Bhutan.

In that case, the CEC has been requested to provide prior and real-time information of rainfall and

volume of water in reservoirs in Bhutan.

At the same time, all the 92 breaches that developed on the embankments in North and South 24-Parganas due to Super Cyclone Amphan have also been separately repaired. Such breaches were identified at places including Patharpratima, Kakdwip and Namkhana in South 24-Parganas and Sandeshkhali and Hingalganj in North 24-Parganas. The work to reconstruct the 156 km embankment that was damaged due to Amphan in East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas has also begun.