Full dams to unleash flood fury in Punjab
Priya YadavPriya Yadav, TNN | Sep 11, 2011,

CHANDIGARH: Heavy rainfall across Himachal Pradesh has resulted in Bhakra dam, on Saturday, reaching the danger mark of 1679.2 feet, just a couple of inches short of brimming over. With heavy discharge of water from Pong and Bhakra dams to prevent this eventuality, the flood situation in Punjab, where the death toll has risen to 41, is set to get grimmer.

Already, flood water has covered 2.5 lakh acre of cotton and paddy crop, nearly 75000 acre more than that destroyed in floods the previous year. Official figures from Punjab indicate that over 1000 houses have been damaged due to flood waters, 200 in just one week. The latest deaths have occurred in Mansa and Hoshiarpur, even though agriculture has been impacted the most in Muktsar and Tarn Taran districts.

D S Guru, principal secretary to CM, said recent floods have damaged crops on 2.56 lakh acres in 886 villages in seven districts of Muktsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar and Kapurthala. The government has announced Rs 1 lakh relief for each bereaved family and Rs 5,000 per acre for crop damage.

Farmers have suffered huge losses as most of the cotton crop in Bathinda and Muktsar has been ruined.

One bridge collapsed in Gurdaspur and another one in Fazilka, while several hundred kilometers of roads have been inundated.

The grim situation is set to get worse as water is likely to be released from the topped up Bhakra and Pong dams. Bhakra Beas and Management Board officials have warned of ''low floods'' due to release of water from both dams which has become necessary to accommodate the sudden rush of nearly 1 lakh cusecs of water due to incessant rain in catchment areas.

The Met office warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the next 48 hours has only increased worries as all rivers in the state, including, Beas, Satluj and Ghaggar are already swollen.

There is also fear of outbreak of an epidemic in districts where floods have occurred as people are without clean drinking water. Already cases of gastroenteritis are being reported from the affected areas.