Battling floods with breached embankments!

State Water Resources department failed to repair 27 embankments

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Aug 20: Assam is battling the latest wave of floods with 27 open embankments, three of which were breached more than two years back.

The State's Water Resource department had failed to repair these 27 embankments - totaling a length of around 3.2 km - after they were breached by gushing waters. Two of the embankments - one in Goalpara and the other in Cachar - were breached way back in 2010. One in Barpeta was breached in 2013 and it could not be repaired.

An 1,800-metre embankment at Jaleshwar in Goalpara was breached in the first floods this year during June-July. There were 24 embankments breaches reported in the last wave of floods. The Water Resources department did not even initiate any short-term measures to protect the adjacent areas after the breaches. Officials at the department cited lack of funds and claimed that the Centre owes an amount of Rs 1,288 crore to the department.

Assam has an embankment system of a total length of 4,473 km. Around 648 km stretch of this embankment system has been identified as vulnerable.