300 km of new embankments underway to tackle flood risks: Pijush Hazarika

Guwahati, Mar 7: Around 300 km of new embankments are being constructed in the areas vulnerable to floods. The new embankments will mitigate the damage caused by floods to a great extent, Minister in charge of Water Resources, Pijush Hazarika, said.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, Hazarika said that the Water Resources Department carried out a detailed survey of the areas where construction of new embankments is feasible. He said that the under-construction embankments should be completed by the middle of April, and that is why the government is hoping that the damage caused by floods in the rainy season this year will be much less. He said that after the completion of the new embankments, there would still be around 150 km where construction of new embankments would be possible and that would be constructed next year.

The minister said that all the breaches of the embankments caused last year have been plugged. But he admitted that the repairing and strengthening of all the old embankments would take some time. He pointed out that Assam has around 4,500 km of embankments, and most of those are very old. He said that the repairing and strengthening of all the decades-old embankments would require substantial amounts of money, and that is why the government is doing it in a phased manner.

Hazarika said that because of the initiatives taken by the government, some flood-prone areas in Majuli, Dhemaji, Morigaon, Lakhimpur, etc., could be protected from devastation last year, and the situation is likely to improve this year with the completion of the new embankments.

However, he pointed out that some people live in the areas between the river and the embankments, and it is impossible to protect those people during floods.

The minister admitted that erosion is a major problem and different schemes have been taken to deal with the issue. The implementation of the Asian Development Bank and World Bank-sponsored projects for anti-erosion projects has also started. He said that the projects include erosion-prone areas not only on the banks of the Brahmaputra but also in its tributaries like Subansiri, Aie, Beki, etc.

By

R Dutta Choudhury