TURA: Several thousand people residing in the plains belt region of West Garo Hills are reeling under flood waters since Saturday after two major rivers flowing through the region, the Brahmaputra and Jinjiram rivers, breached its banks inundating hundreds of acres of land in the low lying areas.
The state government, on Sunday night, declared the region as flood affected after more than one lakh people from 154 villages were hit by the deluge caused by rising waters from the two rivers following incessant rains in the hill areas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh that feed the mighty Brahmaputra.
Villages in the Phulbari constituency, beginning from Paham all the way to Rajabala constituency have witnessed the flood fury of the Brahmaputra and Jinjiram rivers. Phulbari, Balachanda, Bhaitbari, Rajabala, Hallidayganj and parts of Selsella including Haldibari have been affected by the flood waters.
Under Selsella development block, which includes Rajabala constituency, as many as 104 villages having a population of 66,431 people have been affected by the flooding.
Similarly, in Demdema Block which cover Phulbari region a population of 57,700 people from 50 villages have had their normal life thrown out of gear by the flooding.
An alert is in place in both Rajabala and Phulbari urging people residing in the low lying areas to move to higher ground due to the continuous rise in the water level, but many have been reluctant to leave behind their homes for fear of theft.
A road over a major embankment in Phulbari has reportedly been damaged by the flood waters on Monday morning. A section of the road over the Nagaband Solartek embankment, constructed to check the Jinjiram river from entering Phulbari town, has been washed away after the river breached the embankment wall. There is apprehension that the continuing rise in water levels of the Jinjiram could flood vast areas of Phulbari town.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was, on Sunday, supposed to visit the flood affected region and have an aerial survey of the damage but had to cancel the trip due to inclement weather.
One week of Gratuitous Relief have been announced for the flood affected people in the region and dozens of relief camps have been establishment in government schools and other administrative buildings in the plains.
The MLAs of the three affected constituencies of Selsella, Rajabala and Phulbari, namely Mrs. Ferlin C A Sangma, Azad Zaman and S G Esmatur Mominin have been camping in their respective areas and overseeing the relief operations.
“The water is not receding so far and instead more areas are getting flooded. Even a PMGSY road from Bhaitbari to Gajbari village has been submerged under flood water in my constituency,” informed Rajabala MLA Azad Zaman.
The worry for the administration is the possible outbreak of water borne diseases such as cholera since vast areas of human habitation have been flooded. Efforts are being made to set up toilets and providing safe drinking water to the affected population.