Bhubaneswar: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a wet spell from Wednesday even as villages in several districts remained affected by floods, officials said.
Several people were still in relief camps in Jajpur, Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur districts as floodwaters were yet to recede from their villages, even as many rivers recorded a decline in the water levels, they said.
People of Jajpur’s Dasharathpur, Bhadrak’s Basudevpur and Kujang and Tirtol areas of Jagatsinghpur were unable to return to their villages as the roads remained submerged, the officials said.
The IMD, in its evening bulletin, said the rain spell will begin August 5 and continue till August 10.
While the weather office noted that the entire state will receive rainfall for five consecutive days from August 5, it issued an ‘orange warning’ (prepared to take action) of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Mayurbhanj Wednesday.
An orange warning has been issued for Mayurbhanj and Kendujhar August 6 as well, it said.
The IMD said heavy rainfall may also occur at one or two places in Sundaragada, Sambalpur, Kendujhar, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Kandhamala, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Gajapati, Ganjam and Nayagada districts.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Anu Garg, in a meeting with secretaries of various departments, asked them to focus on restoration and rehabilitation operations.
“The departments were asked to immediately repair the river embankments breached during the floods and provide adequate relief materials to people, including fodder for domestic animals,” Garg told reporters after the meeting.
With no significant rainfall in the past three-four days in both Odisha and Chhattisgarh, the water levels in the upper catchment area of Mahanadi and other rivers have declined.
“However, one cannot say what will happen next week as the IMD has forecast another spell of rain across the state,” a senior official at the water resources department said.
As the inflow of rainwater to Hirakud reservoir reduced, the dam authorities have closed nine sluice gates and floodwater is now being discharged through 13 gates, an official said.
The water level in Hirakud reservoir currently stands at 618.71 feet and the dam is receiving an inflow of 90,731 cusecs, while 2,38,508 cusecs of water is being discharged, he said.
The dam authorities are closely monitoring the situation and the discharge is being regulated based on the inflow and downstream rain conditions, the official said.
The recent floods impacted 8,63,909 people across 22 districts, affecting 1,458 villages in 85 blocks. At least six persons have died in the floods while 3,567 houses were damaged, officials said.
Meanwhile, BJD senior vice-president Sanjay Das Burma, who undertook a visit to the worst-hit Bhadrak district, said, “There is no end to the miseries of the people. The flood-affected people had not been provided essential relief materials such as rice, flattened rice (chuda), and jaggery under the special relief arrangements.”
Das Burma alleged that people, along with their domestic animals, were forced to take shelter on the southern embankment of the Baitarani River under the open sky, but not even a single polythene sheet had been provided to them.
He also opposed the exclusion of elected panchayat representatives from the process of relief and polythene distribution.
