Assam flood situation remains grim with food, drinking water shortage; toll touches 159

With nearly 30 lakh people still affected and 159 deaths, flood situation in Assam continued to remain grim.

The flood situation in Assam remained grim on Thursday with eight more people, including three children, losing their lives in the past 24 hours. While two people each perished in the flood waters in Lakhimpur and Nagaon, one person each drowned in Barpeta, Biswanath, Dhemaji and Morigaon districts respectively. With these, the death toll due to floods and landslides in Assam rose to 159 since April this year.

While 141 people have been killed in floods, 18 people have died in landslides. On the other hand, nearly 30 lakh people in 2,608 villages spread across 25 districts of the state still remain affected by the floods.

NO FOOD, DRINKING WATERIndia Today visited some of the remotest and worst-affected villages of Morigaon district, where people have witnessed severe devastation in the past two weeks. Scores of houses are completely inundated in these villages, with the flood waters flowing almost above the thatched roofs. The flood-affected people are now only praying to the weather Gods for the rains to stop and the situation to improve in the coming days so that they could return to their homes.

“ The condition of the villagers here has turned worse with no food and drinking water. Government relief comes occasionally. People are leading a miserable life. We have no boats and are dependent on banana rafts. We appeal to the government to provide us with relief materials properly. We are praying to God that it stops raining and the flood waters recede,” Shyam Bahadur, a flood victim in the district’s Matiparbat village, told India Today.

ALSO WATCH: Assam Floods: Residents Face Shortage Of Food, Drinking Water And ElectricityAFFECTED DISTRICTSThe districts which are still reeling under the flood waters are Bajali, Barpeta, Biswanath, Cachar, Chirang, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Dima Hasao, Goalpara, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Hojai, Kamrup, Kamrup Metropolitan, Karimganj, Lakhimpur, Majuli, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Sonitpur, Tamulpur, Tinsukia and Udalguri. Of these, Cachar continued to be the worst-hit district for the third day in a row with nearly 14.32 lakh people being affected, followed by Nagaon where nearly 5.20 lakh people are suffering, and over four lakh people being hit in Barpeta. The flood-hit victims are passing through the darkest period of their lives.

RELIEF CAMPS

Over 3.05 lakh people are forced to stay in as many as 551 relief camps across 22 districts, after being rendered homeless, as their houses remain submerged for more than a fortnight now. Thousands of flood-affected people of Morigaon district have been taking shelter on National Highway 37. The highway has become their shelter homes now as this is the second time in less than three months that they have been forced to stay in the makeshift camps on the highway, after the flood waters have totally submerged their houses.