As the rivers of Jharkhand are swelling due to torrential rainfall in the upper catchment areas of the Chhotanagpur Plateau since the past few days, the authorities there have been discharging water from Maithon, Panchet and Tenughat dams leading to worsening of the flood situation in the lower basin in neighbouring West Bengal.

In a telephone call, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has urged her Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren to dial back discharge of water from rivers as huge quantities of water have been disgorged from Tenughat dam and to keep a watch on the flood situation. The state government has already asked the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) to decrease discharge of water from its Maithon and Panchet dams. Miss Mamata Banerjee calls the flood as man-made every year after the water discharges by DVC from its dams. The West Bengal CM has shared in her X handle about her appeal to Hemant Soren, the CM of Jharkhand with whom she has very good relations.

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She also expressed about the high tide and has alerted all the district magistrates of South Bengal to keep monitoring l on 5 and 6 August. “I have asked the DMs to be particularly vigilant and take proper care of the calamity situation in the next three to four days. I told them to take all precautionary measures so that there is no untoward incident anywhere,”she said in her X handle. Miss Banerjee referred to yesterday’s sudden discharge of 1 lakh cusecs of water by the Jharkhand governmentowned Tenughat reservoir upstream of the Panchet reservoir in the Damodar river.

Since Tenughat doesn’t have additional flood storage, it only has the option to transfer the excess inflow to Panchet ~ about 141 km downstream in the Bengal – Jharkhand border. The discharge from Tenughat yesterday hit Panchet this evening and dam authorities in the lower Damodar to prepare a flood cushion released 1.14 lakh cusecs since 6:00 a.m today, which has hit the Durgapur Barrage at 5:00 p.m. The barrage, according to Sanjoy Majumdar, Executive Engineer, Damodar Headworks of state Irrigation, “maintained 1,14,439 Cusecs of discharge at 6:30 p.m. today, which we may scale up to 1.35 Lakh Cusecs by midnight.”

The upper dams like Maithon and Tilaiya though have nearly sealed discharge as downpour precipitation ceased in their catchment areas, but Panchet is still carrying forward the load it’s receiving. Maithon dam received 2,666 Hectare Metres of runoff water in phases today and it’s carriage load level reached 483.10 feet at 6:00 p.m, against its maximum level of 495 feet. The level at Panchet was recorded at 422 feet against 425 feet maximum level. The reservoir experts fear overtopping only if there is further rain in the upper catchment areas. Overtopping can be a precursor to dam failure that occurs when water level coupled with strong wind exceeds the crest of the dam.

“We’ve been maintaining every 3 hour’s record and every development is being informed to the Bengal government officials,” said Shashi Rakesh, Member Secretary, Damodar Valley River Regulation Committee. He said: “After the recent overhauling of the channels in lower Damodar Valley, the river system is capable of accommodating at least 1.50 Lakh Cusecs of discharge. So there is probably no need for worry.” Already three people have been killed because of the floods in Asansol. Flight operations at Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport in Andal remained cancelled for the third consecutive day. It is still not clear whether flight operations will resume from tomorrow. .

“After 8 a.m. tomorrow I will be able to tell whether flight operations will resume on Monday and from what time,”said Kailash Mondal, KNI Airport director. In Pandaveswar within Andal police station limits, a subsidence occurred beside an open cast coal mine in West Burdwan district due to incessant rainfall in the region. As much as 98,525 cusecs of water has been released from the Durgapur barrage today, said executive engineer of irrigation department, Sanjay Majumdar. 1.20,000 cusecs of water have been released from Panchet and Maithon Dam. The situation in Birbhum district has also worsened as the Kankalitola temple complex is flooded.

The embankments of the Kuye River have washed away and in Labhpur another embankment was washed away leading to inundation in several villages in Birbhum district. The ferry-ghat in Joydeb – Kenduli was also washed away today. In Bid Bihar of Kanksha, a temporary bridge upon River Ajay has been washed away. It was the link between West Burdwan and Birbhum districts. Though the rainfall has stopped, the water levels have been receding slowly in West Burdwan and Birbhum districts, while the river is overflowing. Large areas have been marooned and agricultural fields are under water