Flood alert issued for south of West Bengal after water released from two Jharkhand dams

West Bengal government issues flood alert due to water release from Jharkhand dams, causing potential floods in the state.

The West Bengal government has issued a flood alert for the southern parts of the State in view of water release from two dams in Jharkhand.

Directing local authorities to stay vigilant, Alapan Bandopadhyay, the Chief Adviser to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said on August 3 that the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) had released a massive 75,000 cusecs of water through the Panchet and Maithon dams in Jharkhand, which could lead to floods in the State.

“There will be high tide on August 5 and 6. Hooghly, Howrah, Udainarayanpur, Khanakul, Amta areas can be flooded owing to the high tide and DVC water release at the same time,” he said.

A red alert for extremely heavy rainfall has been issued for the north of the West Bengal district of Alipurduar. He said there were chances of flash floods in the area. Other districts of north Bengal such as Coochbehar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, and Malda have also been put on orange alert for heavy rainfall.

“The Chief Minister is monitoring the situation 24x7. She is in constant touch with the district administration and police,” the Chief Advisor said.

The DVC has released 75,000 cusecs of water from the two dams as of August 2. Officials said they were not consulted before the DVC released “huge amounts of water when West Bengal is already facing waterlogging in many places due to incessant rain”.

DVC officials said they would further release one lakh cusecs through the Maithon and Panchet dams in the coming days. Mr. Bandopadhyay said this could cause serious havoc in West Bengal and lead to a flood-like situation in the State.