Incessant rainfall for the past two days has led to floodwaters from the Atryee river entering several wards of Balurghat Municipality, disrupting normal life and leaving the areas waterlogged.
More than 40 families were evacuated to a flood shelter from the Atryee colony this morning. While the rains continued till later in the evening today, the water level was rising by the hour.
The administration has arranged for drinking water and dry food in the flood shelter, while all possible arrangements are in place to combat any flood situation in the municipality area, officials said. Areas like the AK Gopalan Colony and Atryee Colony were mostly affected. The Atryee burst banks and flooded the Danga Khari (canal), which in turn inundated the AK Gopalan Colony.
“A few families took shelter in a local school building, while drinking water and dry food have been distributed,” an official at the district administration said.
On the other hand, more than 30 families were shifted to a flood shelter at the Saheb Kachari area. Ten families were evacuated on Sunday night too. The Balurghat Municipality has started to take all possible steps like supply of drinking water and food. “The water level is rising every moment and we fear a re-run of the last floods in 2017. We had then failed to salvage our belongings as the flood waters washed away our houses in the night. So this time around, we are on an alert and are keeping an eye on the water level every moment,” said one resident of the Atryee Colony, Raju Basfor
The Balurghat SDO and administrator of the Balurghat municipality, Isha Mukherjee, said the administration was ready to combat any flood situation. “Due to rise in the water level in the Atryee river, we had to evacuate a few families to the flood shelter. Every possible arrangement has been made for the flood-affected,” she said.