Our Correspondent
Imphal, July 12 (EMN): In view of the heavy rainfall in hilly areas in the last 24 hours, the flow of water at Iril, Imphal and Thoubal rivers which passes through the important valley districts known as Rice Bowl of Manipur suddenly increased on Wednesday forcing the State Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) department officials to monitor the situation closely on Wednesday.
Thoubal River and tributaries of some rivers including Manipur river overflows at various locations due to heavy rainfall in upper hills of Ukhrul and Senapati districts. Two houses were washed away in Rikhumai Taphou in Senapati district on Tuesday. The situation in Lamlai area, Imphal East district are very bad where more than 14000 hectares of paddy fields submerged in the third round of floods in the state.
“We are facing untold miseries after the floods destroyed our crops for the second time. Flood hit the first plantation in June first week and now we don’t know what to do as we’re yet to get any support from the government” said S Gambhir Mangang, a resident of Lamlai area. Manipur have been suffering from flash floods and landslides due to incessant rainfall after Cyclone Mora hit Manipur in May this year.
Nearly 40,000 hectares of agricultural land which is about 20 percent of Manipur’s total agriculture area (1.95 lakh hectare) are affected by floods. In view of development, state agriculture department had assured that short duration (100 days) rice variety seeds (RCM-10 and RCM-12) will be distributed to the needy flood affected farmers in the state. State agriculture department officials also informed that they’ll have to purchase other alternative crops if the flood water continues till August. The continuous rainfalls in the state also damaged Imphal-Jiribam sector of the National Highway 37, connecting the state capital with rest of the country. NH 37 at Sinam village landslide has affected the movement of trucks on Saturday. However the vehicular movement was resumed following short term measures on Monday.
Most of the low lying areas in Manipur valley have submerged which comprises of five districts –Imphal West, Imphal East, Bishnupur, Kakching and Thoubal. Akampat, Lamphelpat, Porompat, Takyelpat and Yaralpat located in and around the greater Imphal areas which were once the popular wetlands was converted into government’s institutional areas, quarters, buildings etc has now become wetlands again this rainy season due to lack of proper drainage system in view of the continuous rainfall this season.
According to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Manipur centre, Manipur has witnessed 1388.7 mm of rainfall as on July 11 against last year’s record of 1852.4 mm. “Now time has come to formulate a major long term plan to prevent frequent flooding (in Takyelpat),” said former social welfare Minister and local MLA AK Mirabai. IFC department is trying to pump out flood water by using two water pumps from Lamphelpat area where the National Institute Technology (NIT) campus and other government structures are located.
“The state should have a comprehensive state water policy urgently and water budgeting should be done at the earliest besides rejuvenating all river linking areas of the state and removal of all the structures blocking the monsoon flows should be also taken up”, said environmentalist Dr RK Ranjan when contacted.
Manipur suffered a loss of around Rs 131 crore in the floods since cyclone Mora hit the state in late May, a senior officer said here today. “The state lost nearly Rs 131 crore because of loss of property and other damage done by floods and related incidents like landslides,” Principal Secretary (Relief and Disaster Management) MH Khan told PTI. The flood crisis and landslides started with cyclone Mora that made landfall on May 29 and, under its influence, came heavy rains that lasted for almost 10 days, he said.
This was later followed by torrential rains and storms lasting for 10 more days in mid-June and the situation worsened when incessant rains began on June 29. These caused severe damage to property, agricultural land, road transportation sector and others, he said adding that a memorandum has been sent to the Centre asking for assistance. All the districts of the state has been affected by the floods and Chief Minister N Biren Singh had termed it as a “state calamity”.
The administration set up 76 relief camps to help 30,000 off flood affected people, Khan said. An agriculture department official said that over 20 per cent of total paddy fields in all the five districts of Imphal valley.
