Flash floods in Guwahati, many roads under water

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: After weeks of hot and humid weather, people of the Guwahati city got much-needed respite when the heavy rainfall hit the city around 4 pm on Tuesday.

But the heavy rainfall has caused waterlogging in majority of the city roads.

Many roads in the Ambari, Chandmari, Hatigoan, Beltola, Gorchuk of the city were under till Wednesday morning.

A vehicular movement through Maligaon flyover towards Kamakhya Gate came to a standstill in the evening as a major part of the road has been blocked due to the ongoing construction of new flyover by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA). And the water logging of rain also created havoc.

"The flash flood is a regular phenomenon. But the government has done nothing concrete to find a solution to the problem," said a city resident.

Rapid urbanization with increased housing and construction activities in the city leading to increased in number of buildings, streets and other impervious hard surfaces, and more importantly the decrease in the number of inland wetland pockets and clogging of drainage systems has led to indiscriminate flooding. This has resulted in decreasing land capacity to soak up and carry excess storm water.

In addition to this, the unplanned expansion of the city to accumulate increasing population has lead to severe encroachment in the wetlands, low lying areas, hills and shrinkage of forest cover .These denuded hills and loss of wetlands thus lead to artificial floods and water logging. Immediately after every down pour the city drains gets filled up with silts coming with storm water running down the hills results on flooding the streets, house etc.

Notably, the highest temperature was recorded at 34 degrees and the lowest predicted is 24 degrees on Tuesday.

Weather reports have also alerted heavy rainfall till Wednesday evening.

The relative humidity, a measure of moisture in the air in the daytime, oscillated between 86 per cent and 94 per cent.

The IMD has forecast a generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers for the next three days.

Also Read: Water Logging in Guwahati: Fancy and Uzan Bazaar Under Water after Rise in Water Level

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