BHUBANESWAR: Flood waters entered several villages in Kanas and Delang blocks of Puri district even as 10 lakh cusecs flowed through the Mundali barrage causing breaches in the embankments of two tributaries of Mahanadi river.
"Because of the swelling Mahanadi river at Mundali, floods are triggered in Daya and Bhargavi, two of its tributaries. With breaches occurring in Daya and Rajua rivers, a vast tract of land has been inundated under flood waters, the repair for which will be immediately taken up," said special relief commissioner (SRC) PK Jena.
Villages in the Athgarh and Banki blocks of Cuttack district have been inundated as floodwaters from Mahanadi entered low lying areas. Six panchayats of Banki, Koilikanya and Raghurampur villages under Tigiria block have been flooded, the SRC further added.
Anshupa Park, a major tourist destination in Banki block of the district has also been completely submerged under the floodwater from river Mahanadi. The SRC said that the floodwaters from Hirakud Dam reached Mundali barrage on Sunday morning with a peak inflow of 10 lakh cusecs per second.
Since there has been no rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Mahanadi during the last 24 hours, the volume of the floodwater discharged from the dam has reduced in the wee hours of Sunday, Jena told mediapersons after a high-level meeting
at the Lok Seva Bhavan here.
By 1pm, the water level of the dam was 128 feet.
While 7,65,408 lakh cusecs water was entering the Hirakud dam, the outflow from 46 gates was 7,65,408 cusecs per second. The SRC said that there will be no further rise in the flood waters.
“The peak flow of the floodwater at Mundali will continue till Monday morning and recede thereafter. The discharged floodwater will reach Kendrapada district after eight hours and Puri after 10 hours. It is most likely that the excess release of floodwater will trigger a flood like situation in Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts,” he said.
The water level of the Devi river at Daleighai in Jagatsinghpur district was 57.10 feet against the danger mark of 57 feet and 14.40 feet against the danger level of 13 feet at Machhagaon.
At Sankheswar, the water level of Paika river was 26.30 feet against the danger mark of 22.75 feet.
The SRC said that flood waters have caused 32 breaches in embankments in the major rivers.
Jajpur district has recorded 24 breaches, stated to be the highest in the state. Apart from hundreds of acres of crop land going under the floodwaters, there were severe damage to thatched houses in these areas.
The water level in Baitarani and Brahmani river systems has receded. Even as the relief operations are underway in the the blocks of Jajpur district, a special attention is being given to Bari block.