N Odisha districts again face spectre of flood

Bhubaneswar: Incessant rainfall on Wednesday, triggered by a low-pressure area, increased the water level in the Baitarani river on Thursday and submerged many areas in north Odisha.Engineer-in-chief of the water resources department, Chandra Sekhar Padhi, on Thursday said the Baitarani breached its danger level by 0.5 metres at Akhuapada in Bhadrak district. "The Baitarani is currently witnessing a flood. We are expecting the water level to increase by 1ft and become stable thereafter. However, there is no flood situation in the Subarnarekha and Budhabalanga rivers. While Jalaka has crossed its warning mark, it is flowing below the danger level," said Padhi.Bhadrak and Jajpur administrations have issued high alerts for their respective areas, which have not yet recovered from the damages caused by flooding last week. Several localities in Balasore town have been waterlogged for the last two days due to urban flooding following heavy rain.According to the IMD, the southwest monsoon has been quite active over Odisha, and more than a dozen low-pressure systems have formed over the Bay of Bengal this monsoon, causing heavy rain. "The state has so far received 936.1mm of rainfall against a normal of 952.5mm, with a 2% deficit. Most of the low-pressure areas forming over the Bay of Bengal move in the west-northwestwards direction, causing heavy rain in the upper catchment areas of several rivers in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, leading to a flood situation in north Odisha districts," said Manorama Mohanty, director of IMD's regional centre here.Experts said repeated flooding in north Odisha districts this year are not merely meteorological, but there are other reasons. "This year's monsoon has been early, intense and vigorous compared to previous monsoons. There have been multiple, back-to-back systems forming over the Bay of Bengal triggering heavy rain. Sept again looks very active and hectic. However, other factors like water management and the release of floodwaters from dams and reservoirs are also important," said Sandeep Patnaik, associate professor, School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, IIT-Bhubaneswar.