Flooding destroys 100 villages in Assam

[Gert van der Hoek]

Flooding destroys 100 villages in Assam

Thu May 29, 2008

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Floods triggered by heavy rain destroyed more than 100 villages and affected thousands of people in Assam over the last two days, officials said on Thursday.

Surging rivers washed away homes and many villagers were being evacuated from low-lying areas in Assam, officials said.

Embankments at several places have been damaged by water flowing down the mountains in Assam, affecting around 50,000 people.

"Continuous rainfall in the upper reaches caused overflowing of rivers and heavy erosion of river banks," Diwakar Mishra, a senior government official in Assam state's Dhemaji district, said.

On Thursday, officials said a portion of a highway connecting Arunachal Pradesh, which shares a border with China, had been washed away.

Last year, around 50 people were killed and more than 12 million people affected by flooding in Assam alone.

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-33815620080529

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: Flooding destroys 100 villages in Assam

Every year, monsoon seasons in South Asia bring severe storms and flooding to wide swathes of Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Climate change is now making things worse, as melting glaciers in the Himalayas increase the risk of flooding but cut the supply of fresh water. Worst recent floods in 2005 killed 3,400 in the region
Scientists predict more devastating floods and landslides
Indian Subcontinent one of the areas most affected by climate change

Monsoon rains are essential for the region's agriculture, but poor infrastructure and poverty have left communities increasingly ill-equipped to cope with the impact of heavy rains. Flooding and landslides claim lives, destroy property and crops and increase the prevalence of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. The seasons can be loosely categorised into the northeastern winter monsoon which runs from December to early March, and the southwestern summer monsoon, which normally lasts from early June to early September and supplies more than 80 percent of annual rainfall. The winter monsoon - which blows in from the northeast carrying moisture from the Bay of Bengal - is also normally responsible for cyclones in India. Environmental scientists say South Asia, and India in particular, is set to be one of the worst-affected regions by climate change as ever rising temperatures melt the Himalayan glaciers. More than 500 million people - almost half of India's total population - living in the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins rely on the glaciers for their water supply. Paradoxically, faster melting glaciers increase the risk of rivers bursting their banks because of the larger volumes of water, but the fact that they are also receding means that water supplies aren't reaching as far as they used to. Not only that, experts say rising temperatures are affecting moderate summer monsoon rainfall which is normally easily absorbed by the earth and recharges the ground water. Instead, rain now falls in heavier bouts on drier ground, which is more prone to flooding and landslides. According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, so-called extreme rain events could reach 100 per year in India, more than double the 45 that were common in the 1950s. Researchers also say rising temperatures will mean mosquito-borne diseases will spread to higher altitudes. In 2006, torrential rain during the summer monsoon in June displaced nearly half a million people in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, where the Brahmaputra River burst its banks. Flood waters cut off highways and railways, stranding hundreds of thousands of people in ten districts. In western India, freak torrential rains flooded the desert state of Rajasthan, displacing hundreds of thousands and killing 140 people. The worst flooding in recent years hit areas of India's Maharashtra state around Mumbai in July 2005. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, more than 22 million people were affected, including 3,400 killed, 1,100 people injured and another 450,000 displaced.


http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/SA_MON.htm

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Flooding destroys 100 villages in Assam

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL54494

Floods leave 300,000 homeless in India's east
Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:55am EDT

By Jatindra Dash

BHUBANESWAR, India, June 18 (Reuters) - Indian soldiers evacuated thousands of stranded people from submerged villages on Wednesday, as floods triggerred by heavy monsoon rains swept across the country's east and northeast.

More than 300,000 people have lost their homes so far, and are scattered between camps, highways and makeshift shelters on higher ground, officials said. Rising river waters have broken through mud embankments and flooded vast areas.

"Flood waters have submerged thousands of acres of land, disrupted electricity, roads and rail communication in many districts," S. Barai, a senior state government official told Reuters in Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa.

Hundreds of people are camping on highways and authorities have asked them to move to higher ground, saying the weather could worsen in the next few days. Others are stranded.

"We are not able to move out of our homes, because the roads are cut off since last night in our town," Mohhammed Rafiq Khan, a resident of the worst-hit Balasore district said.

In the neighbouring state of West Bengal, soldiers used speedboats to help evacuate flood victims.

Monsoon rains have also lashed India's remote northeast, killing at least 30 people in the region since the weekend.

In tea-rich Assam state, thousands of people were still living in waist-deep water.Officials said teams of doctors and paramedics had been sent to flood-hit areas.

"Although there are no reports of any outbreak of diseases, we are taking no chances," Assam's Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Assam accounts for about 55 percent of India's tea production, but officials said they were still to get reports of rains affecting the tea trade. (Additional reporting by Sujoy Dhar in Kolkata and Biswajyoti Das in Guwahati; Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Simon Denyer) (For the latest Reuters news on India see in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in/ )