Villages submerged in Punjab as Satluj overflows
By IANSWednesday, September 8, 2010
CHANDIGARH - At least 15 villages in Anandpur Sahib sub-division in Ropar district of Punjab were submerged and large swathes of land inundated as the overflowing waters of Satluj river entered their territory Wednesday.
The affected villages include Laudipur, Burj, Hariwal, Mataur, Chandpur, Mehndi Kalan, Kalyanpur, Badhal, Nikkuwal and Ballowal,
The Ropar district administration was undertaking rescue work on a war-footing to save the flood victims.
“Flood waters have entered some villages in Anandpur sub-division. However, there is nothing to worry about. Rescue work is on and we are closely monitoring the flood situation. We have made all necessary arrangements to handle any kind of emergency situation,” A.S. Miglani, Ropar deputy commissioner told IANS.
Water level in the Bhakra Dam reached 1680.25 feet Wednesday and the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) officials are opening its spillways to maintain it at the level of 1680-foot maximum storage mark. The current inflow is over 40,000 cusec.
The BBMB is releasing around 12,000 cusec of excess water into the Satluj river to maintain the water level in the reservoir of the Bhakra Dam since Sunday.
“We have to maintain the Bhakra Dam level at 1680 feet till Sep 10. Water in the Pong Dam has reached 1388-foot mark and so far we have not released water from there,” BBMB joint director V.P. Sharma told IANS.
The water level in the Gobind Sagar reservoir of the Bhakra Dam, described by Jawaharlal Nehru as ‘one of the temples of modern India’, is rising by half to one foot everyday.
Earlier, the BBMB released excess water into the Satluj by opening its spillways from Aug 21 to 27.
The Bhakra Dam is located in Himachal Pradesh, along the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border, 130 km from Chandigarh.
Besides, there were reports that tens of hundreds of cusec of water were released into Yamuna river from the Tajewala barrage in Yamunanagar district Wednesday.
“Due to incessant rainfall in the region, several thousand cusec of water have been released into Yamuna river today. Many new breaches have also emerged at various locations and we are working to plug them,” said an official of the Yamunanagar district administration.
