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Breaching of river embankments September 30, 2024 at seven points in North Bihar caused widestread destruction in the eastern state already ravaged by floods due to heavy rainfall.
The swollen rivers Kosi, Bagmati and Gandak inundated vast expanses of villages, leaving hundreds marooned and thousands displaced. The floodwater destroyed hundreds of thatched and bamboo houses as well as thousands of acres of standing crops. Dozens of roads and small bridges have been washed away by the force of the water.
Record volumes of water were released from barrages in the catchment areas of Nepal and north Bihar on September 28 after heavy monsoon rainfall, causing the rivers to rise.
Though water release from barrages has been reducing since September 29, Bagmati, Gandak, Kosi, Mahananda and other rivers are still in spate.
Kosi breached its western embankment near Bhubhol village under Kartarpur block in Darbhanga district on September 29 late night. This inundated dozens of villages and heavily damaged infrastructure, including brick houses and destroyed standing paddy crops.
Bagmati breached its embankments in Sitamarhi and Sheohar districts and Gandak in western Champaran.
“At least 15-16 pucca houses (brick) of Bhubhol village were fully damaged by heavy current of water after breach of western embankment of Kosi near the village. Villagers managed to save their lives by shifting to high-elevation places. Their food grains, clothes and other essential items were destroyed and some animals also perished,” Roushan Kumar Yadav, an activist camping near worst-affected Bhubhol on September 30, told Down To Earth (DTE).
The situation will worsen in the coming hours because floodwater is not likely to recede in the next few days, he added. “Residents of Bhubhol, neighbouring villages as well as areas beyond will have to struggle for food, water and safe shelter“.
There is panic among villagers, Chandraveer Yadav, another activist and resident of an affected village near the site of breach of Kosi western embankment, told DTE. Dozens of villages in five panchayats were inundated when Kosi flooded near Bhubol, he added.
The swollen Bagmati breached its embankment in Belsand block in Sitamarhi on September 29. ”Nearly 2,000 families in several villages including Madhkaul, Olipur, Zafarpur and Madar were forced to flee and take shelter on raised land masses,” Satendar Kumar from Madhkaul village, one of the worst-hit by embankment breach, told DTE.
More than 50,000 people were affected by the Bagmati embankment breach, Kumar added.
A total of 661,000 cusecs of water was released from Birpur Barrage on Kosi till late night on September 28, according to an official update by the Water Resources Department (WRD) of the state. All 56 sluice gates of the barrage were opened.
Some 562,000 cusecs of water was released from the Valmikinagar Barrage on Gandak September 28. All 36 sluice gates of the barrage were opened.
WRD officials admitted that they had not expected water levels to rise to such astronomical levels, forcing release from barrages in such a way by the end of this month, when the monsoon is already returning.
The release of water from Birpur Barrage on September 28 was the highest after 1968, when 788,000 cusecs were released, official records of WRD showed. Similarly, the release of water from the Valmikinagar Barrage on Gandak was the highest after 2003.
The unexpected release of such huge volumes of water from barrages into Kosi and Gandak rivers flooded new areas and breached embankments, said Mahendar Yadav, a river activist working in flood-prone Kosi region of Bihar.
In 2008, breaching of Kosi's eastern embankment led to flooding of five districts in northern Bihar, affecting millions, he recalled. "But this time, the breach in Kosi's western embankment will not cause such devastation".
Senior officials of the Bihar Disaster Management Department (DMD) told DTE that the flood situation was grim in 12 districts, including Supaul, Darbhanga, West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj, Madhubani, Saharsa, Sitamarhi and Sheohar. Till now, some 350,000 people have been affected and this number is set to increase, they noted. "But the flood situation likely to worsen in view of reports of embankment breach and seepage at several places since September 29.”
Three National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams each from Varanasi and Ranchi have been deployed in the flood-affected districts of Bihar on September 30, according to DMD officials. Earlier, 12 NDRF teams and 22 State Disaster Response Force teams were deployed by the department.
WRD Principal Secretary Santosh Kumar Mall told local media that engineers of the department were on high alert. “We have directed them for round-the-clock patrolling and monitoring of embankments in view of reported breach and reports of seepage at a few places.”
According to WRD’s website, Bihar is the most flood-affected state, accounting for close to 17.2 per cent of the total flood-prone area in the country.
Some 6.88 million hectares (76 per cent of north Bihar and 73 per cent of south Bihar) of Bihar’s 9.416 million hectare area is flood-prone. At present, 28 of 38 districts in the state are flood-prone.