Dibrugarh: Waterlogging continues to be a serious problem for the residents of Dibrugarh town. After overnight rain on Thursday night, 90 per cent of Dibrugarh town was submerged. The incessant downpour has caused severe waterlogging in all the 22 wards of the town inundating road, shops and residential houses. The flash floods affected all major residential areas like Police reserve, Milan Nagar, Jibon Phukan Nagar, Ashit Nagar, KP Road, Bordoloi Avenue, Lachit Nagar, Chowkidinghee, Khaniagaon, Gangapara, Seujpur, Amolapatty, Padum Nagar, Naliapool, Santipara, Durgabari, Bishnu Nagar, Guardpara, Khalihamari and Graham Bazar with rain water entering several households.
For many years, the residents of Dibrugarh have been facing flash flood problem and after construction of drains also the problem has not been solved. "Every year during the rainy season we have to face waterlogging in our area. The DTP drain is overflowing and the drain water entered many houses in our locality. For the last several decades, we have been witnessing waterlogging in our locality. During monsoon, most of the houses come under water in our area and many residents have to shift to safer places. Due to the poor drainage system, the rain water stagnates in our locality," said Raju Sharma, a resident of Dibrugarh town.
Meanwhile, Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Pegu and SDRF team visited Gangapara area to take stock of the flash flood. Many residents were rescued from the Gangapara area. The whole area was submerged. "Out of five water pumps, two are not functioning and due to that, the excess rain water could not flush out. Both the pumps can flush out 1,000 liters of rain water from the town if properly functioning," said Thomas Borgohain, another resident.
Meanwhile, the Brahmaputra was flowing at 105.23 metre in Dibrugarh against the danger level of 105.70 metre. In the last 24 hours, Dibrugarh received a total of 67.56 mm of rainfall as per data received from the water resources department. This year till today, Dibrugarh received 1477 mm rainfall.
Talking to media persons, Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan said, "Overnight rain has submerged 90 per cent of Dibrugarh town. For the last couple of days, rain has been continuously pouring in Dibrugarh but everything was fine. However, the rain on Thursday night has led to waterlogging in most of the wards in Dibrugarh town. Ward no 21, Gangapara was badly affected and the SDRF team rescued people from 15 houses."
He further said, "We have used five water pumps in Maijan, Natun Gaon, Thakurbari, Tinkonia and near SP office to flush out rain water from the town. The pumps can flush out 2,000 cubic litres of water within a second. We have also arranged relief camps for the people."
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