With incessant rains lashing the whole of UP, major rivers are in spate forcing the administration to sound an alert as 21 people had died of rain-related incidents since the onset of monsoon.
“Seven more persons have died in incidents of house collapse and lightening in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 21. A family of three died in Bahraich when the roof of their house collapsed, two people died in lightening in Shrawasti,” an official said.
The state government has issued alert advisory in several districts of eastern UP with more than 200 villages in Gonda, Barabanki, lakhimpur Kheri and Shrawasti were inundated due to the rising Ghagra, Sharda and Rapti rivers. Over 2 lakh people have been affected by the floods so far,” officials said.
The Army has been put on standby while special flood company of PAC and SDRF teams have been deployed in the flood-affected districts.
The Ganga river is also rising and it is near danger level in Fatehgarh and Ballia while Yamuna river is near the red mark in Mavi. Flood posts have been established to help the affected people.
The rising Ganga has entered Rasulpur village of Amroha where the district administration has sounded flood alert for 12 villages. The Ganga is rising in Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi inundating low lying areas. Threat of flood looms large over Bulandshahr, Ballia, Muzaffaranagar and Ayodhya with water levels rising in Ganga, Yamuna and Ghagra rivers.
In Kushinagar, Budhi Gandak river is in spate due to water released from Balmikinagar barrage and continuous rain in upper reaches of Nepal.
As per reports from Flood Control unit of the Irrigation and Water Resource department, Sharda river is flowing 1.3 metres above the danger mark in Paliyakalan in lakhimpur-Kheri while Ghagra is flowing 65 cm above danger level at Elgin Bridge in Barabanki and 4 cm above water level in Ayodhya.
River Rapti is also rising all through its course and would touch the danger mark at Bhinga (Shrawasti) and at Balrampur by Wednesday evening.
Nine villages are submerged in Barabanki including Parsaul, Naipura, Manjha Raipur and Kanchanpur. “Around 3 lakh cusec of water has been released from Sharda Barrage in lakhimpur which is expected to reach Barabanki by Wednesady,” said sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Ram Nagar (Barabanki) Ashutosh Dubey.
State Met department predicts rains for the next 48 hours. The fresh spell of rains has also improved state’s rainfall score. Total rainfall in the state from June 1 till date has been 22 per cent above normal. in comparison, till July 9, it was 12 per cent above normal
.According to MeT department, Bahriach recorded 105.4 mm of rainfalls during the past 24 hours followed by 100.4 mm in Gorakhpur,,81.4 in Shravasti, 42.4 in Balrampur, 40 in Sidharthnagar, 37 mm in Kheri, 33.8 in Rae Bareli and 30.6 mm in Varanasi.