By IANS
Guwahati : Five people were drowned and thousands have been displaced in flash floods triggered by heavy rains in Assam, officials said Wednesday.
The five people, including three children, were killed late Tuesday in three separate incidents of drowning while trying to escape the surging floodwaters in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district, a government spokesman said.
“All the incidents took place while they were trying to reach higher grounds in wooden rafts,” A. Baruah, a district official, said by telephone.
Parts of eastern Assam are currently reeling under a fresh wave of flooding since Tuesday after heavy rains in the adjoining state of Arunachal Pradesh.
“When heavy rains occur in Arunachal Pradesh, the rivers in Assam overflow leading to flash floods. More than 5,000 people have been displaced in the current wave of flooding,” Bhumidhar Barman, Assam revenue, relief and rehabilitation minister, told IANS.
A Central Water Commission bulletin Wednesday said the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level in at least seven places and in full spate.
“There were no floods in Assam since the first week of August and we thought the crisis was over. But now we are faced with another wave of flooding,” the minister said.
Three weeks of flooding caused by the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra beginning mid-July had killed 35 people and displaced 6.7 million in 26 of Assam’s 27 districts, a government statement said.
Over 4,000 people displaced in the July floods are still lodged in makeshift shelters in Dhemaji district with their homes completely washed away.
The 2,906-km long Brahmaputra is one of Asia’s largest rivers that traverses its first stretch of 1,625-km in the Tibet region, the next 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through neighbouring Bangladesh before converging into the Bay of Bengal.
Every year the floods leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields, drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property. In 2004, more than 200 people were killed in floods in Assam.