Embankment Works to resume after April 21 in Assam following COVID-19 guidelines

Embankment works: One step forward, two steps back

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: For the State Water Resources Department resuming the stalled embankment repair and construction works is exactly taking ‘one step forward, two steps back’.

Embankment works had slowed down in the State from mid-March and came to a grinding halt from the midnight of March 24 when the 21-day first COVID-19 lockdown was enforced. Taking the urgency of the situation and with the monsoon nearing, the department has decided to resume only works of the embankments that need urgent attention. The situation is such that the condition of some of the embankments is vulnerable and they may spell disaster when there is flood.

In the meantime, the detection of a corona positive case at Lahorighat in Morigaon district on Thursday has proved to be a fresh setback for the department. The repair works of an embankment at Lahorighat was underway and but had to be stalled during the first lockdown. Sources say that the department was to resume the stalled repair works of an embankment at Lahorighat. However, the latest corona positive case detected there has left the department to ‘rethink’ as the house of the corona positive patient is very close to the embankment.

The department has already lost more than one month of its working season that ranges from October-April, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As part of his preparedness for floods, State Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta toured Kamrup, Darrang, Biswanath and other districts of the State and instructed departmental officials and contractors to go ahead with the works of vulnerable embankments after April 21. The minister has asked them to carry out the works by adhering to the Government of India’s COVID-19 guidelines and making labourers wash their hands and use sanitizers frequently, besides using masks. He has also asked the officers to consult the resumption of works with the respective deputy commissioners.

The minister has asked the officials and contractors to keep the labourers in camps maintain social distancing.

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