Flood Update VIII of 2011 from WIO - 23rd Sept 2011
Ranjan Panda
Flood Update VII from Water Initiatives Odisha
23rd September 2011
Dear Friends/Co-sailors,
Fresh Floods lash Odisha
At the time when the govt. of Odisha was submitting its Memorandum to the central govt. detailing the damaged caused by the floods in the state, depression caused another spell of heavy pours flooding the Baitarani and its tributaries for the third time this monsoon. This spectre has been the worst, already affecting nearly 3 lakh people in 6 districts of the state. As per the latest update from govt. sources, the River Baitarani was flowing about 3 metres above the danger level at Akhuapada. River Brahmani is flowing close to its danger level at Jenapur. The Districts of Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kendrapada and Keonjahr have been seriously affected due to very high flood in river Brahmani and Baitarani. District of Mayurbhanj and Balasore have also been affected due to flood in Budhabalanga and other rivers. The govt. informs that flood in Mahanadi river system and major rivers in southern part of the State is well within control.
The report that can be downloaded from http://www.osdma.org/Download/Flood_2011Update_Status_230911.pdf puts the number of affected villages at 829 belonging to 252 Gram Panchayats of 25 Blocks of the 6 districts. 711 villages have been marooned and 1 person has reportedly died. The Revenue Minister has informed that Relief Operations have been ordered for seven days. The Government have also decided to immediately start airdropping of food packets in the marooned villages in Bhadrak, Jajpur and Kendrapada Districts which will start from tomorrow. Three senior officers have been deputed from State level to three most affected Districts namely Jajpur, Bhadrak and Kendrapada to assist the Collectors in relief operation.
Earlier, before this current spell of the floods, the Govt. of Odisha had submitted this year’s Memorandum on Floods to the Govt. of India and informed that 4897 villages of 102 Blocks and 21 ULBs in 19 Districts have been affected by the current flood. 41 persons have lost their lives in the calamity due to drowning, snake bite, etc. besides 10 persons missing being swept away/ drowned in flood water but their dead bodies have not been found so far. The livestock casualty including poultry stands at 1667. It reported damage of 116706 dwelling houses. The state govt. submitted a property damage estimate of 2120.92 crore of rupees. The details of it have been covered in the second news shared in this Update.
The state government has just informed that a four member sub-team (Inter Ministerial Central Team) will be visiting the state from 26th of this month for assessment of the damages/losses.
As already informed, we are deliberately keeping the format of this update very simple and user friendly. In this update we only have the NEWS, STATS and MET SPEAKS sections and have skipped all other sections.
Once again, we would like to inform you that, at the moment, it’s occasional and we may come up with these updates as and when we can, given our limited manpower and resources. However, with your inputs and support, we are sure; we shall be able to ensure regular flow of this update.
We request you to send in your reports of activities, your views; and any other interesting and relevant article, books, photographs, and anything that you feel we should cover in this Update. It’s YOU who is the most important FUEL of this effort.
This update is also available at:
http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/2011/09/flood-update-viii-of-2011-from-wio.html
and
http://www.scribd.com/doc/66071472/Flood-Update-VIII-From-WIO-23rd-September-2011
Look forward to listen from you and your continued support.
Thanks and regards,
Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha
Water Initiatives Odisha: Fighting water woes, combating climate change... more than two decades now!
R-3/A-4, J. M. Colony, Budharaja
Sambalpur 768 004, Odisha, INDIA
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Email: ranja...@gmail.com, ranja...@yahoo.com
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Blog: http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/
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Kiss the rain when you can, because water and abundance are falling apart...(Ranjan Panda)
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Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two decades now.