Man-made floods claim 16 lives in 5 days; more than 19L people affected

The "man-made floods" in South Bengal districts have claimed 16 lives so far in the past five days.

Six of the 16 were drowned when their villages were heavily inundated, three were electrocuted, four died after a stretch of wall fell on them, two died after being bitten by snakes and one after being struck by lightning.

In 106 blocks in districts including Birbhum, Bankura, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Burdwan and Midnapore more than 19 lakh people have been affected so far.

According to reports received by officials at Nabanna from their counterparts in the districts, with continuous release of water by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) more than 4,16,675 people were rendered homeless on Thursday.

The state government has opened 162 relief camps on Thursday which were only 50 till Wednesday.

This situation has turned worse as 2,25,052 cusec and 1,56,367 cusec water was released from Panchet and Galodi respectively.

According to an officer in the state Secretariat, 44,684 cusec water was released into the Teesta. "There are threats from Dhupguri and Maynaguri in North Bengal once the level of water release in Teesta goes up to 50,000 cusec," the officer added.

The man-made floods have left thousands homeless as around 7,868 houses collapsed completely and another 64,361 houses were partially damaged.

The people whose houses were damaged had initially taken shelter in nearby schools, later to be rescued and taken to relief camps. The state government has distributed clothes and food materials among the homeless who have taken shelter in relief camps.

The district authorities have directed all police personnel and volunteers to make people aware that more houses would collapse once the water recedes. The reason behind this is that the walls of the mud houses become weak after remaining submerged under water for three-four days and it starts collapsing soon after the water recedes.

Such cases increase the total number of toll due to the floods. Thus, the district administration is busy creating awareness programmes as precautionary measures.

On Thursday, around 2,301 people were shifted from their houses to relief camps on 51 boats engaged by the Disaster Management department.

The official said a total of 4 lakh

hectre of farmland in 11 districts have gone under water.

Since June 1, North 24 Parganas district in South Bengal has received maximum rainfall of 760.7 mm, Bankura and Howrah received 743.2 mm and 728.1 mm rainfall respectively. In North Bengal, Jalpaiguri has received 1176.2 mm of rain in this period of time.

The state Disaster Management department had provided training to several people from different parts of the state on rescue operations during any emergency or natural calamity. In a bid to help people to reach safer destinations, a total of 2 lakh such trained hands have been deployed and they are working round-the-clock.

The state government has also taken necessary measures to provide treatment to those lodged in the relief camps as they are falling ill too. Teams of doctors have been pressed into action in the relief camps to address the issue.